


Ludicrous Space Odyssey: First Part, Assassination Arc.

by RamKitten



Series: Ludicrous Space Odyssey [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Battle, Blood, Epic Battles, Fantasy, Magic, Mild Gore, Novel, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Science Fiction, Space Battles, Superpowers, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-03-21 17:25:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 37,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13745760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RamKitten/pseuds/RamKitten
Summary: It's future and a bizarre one at that; a bunch of species coming together to form Empires, fight enemies, conquer lands and do a bunch of stuff. We have technology, magic and seemingly anything to satisfy anyone's needs. But, among all those people, there is one Oni with a simple dream; to take down strongest warrior she can find. And how does she plan on doing that? Through adventuring among the stars quite a lot.





	1. Chapter I: Unusual routine.

As the energy rushed through the machine, its parts would slowly start working at the regular paste, starting to heat the area slowly up. Soon, moment by moment, a little area within the machine would heat to the extreme degree as the rock inside, a piece of seemingly shiny ore would start to crumble. Soon, it would be nothing more but a liquid, dripping along a mechanism into a little waiting area where it would soon be ready for shaping and any sort of manipulation. 

"Okay, this one is almost done!" A loud voice rushed through the working area of the local blacksmith station that was nicely resting near Empire's most important building, the Royal Square where all the important government individuals rested. Said voice was low yet not without a feminine touch to it, definitely having an elegance of sort to it even. Not a regular elegance though but more of a...Rough one. Like a mountain, it clearly rang with dominance and strength and just like a finest of swords it pierced through the area with ease; if one would listen for long enough, they even could be lucky enough to spot pattern of arrogance in it as well. "It will be ready tomorrow, you punk." She called to the two young soldiers standing at the counter from the back of the working area, sparkling a fair bit of black dust over the molten ore. A light steam would come off from it before the dust would spread through it as the whole thing then would be quickly placed into another machine. That one was more round and smaller, as well as quieter and cooler. A synthesizer, obviously, which was turned on by the blacksmith.

She would proceed to pull off her apron, which was loosely tied anyways, before turning off the lights and allowing the machine to work over the night. Sighing, she walked out from the back door, locking the shop with her eye scan before looking at the synthetic sky. "Well, it's just getting dark so might as well allow myself something to drink." A young Oni mumbled to herself, pulling out a pair of round, black glasses before quickly snapping them on as she started walking off. She smiled, enjoying the feeling of how air rushed through her messy hair, giving them some volume as she walked while her boots lightly hit against the floor. So what if she was looking out of place with her shirt whose sleeves were cut off in pretty messy manner or with her tight jeans that were made of elastic, synthetic material instead of real, expensive and organic materials? First, Ryu thought that her black shirt with its white-grey design looked pretty minimalistic; and who cared that it was an anime girl in the embrace of tentacles? And second, people should try to be Oni and wear organic tight jeans and then talk to her. Hell yeah, she was presentable as hell! 

But her thoughts were soon caught off by another voice calling out to her and, judging by the fact that it was loud as all hell in such fancy area, it could've been only one person; "Ryu-sama~! Finally, I found you!" Ryu sighed, turning her head to greet a source of that light voice which clearly didn't match the person's look. It was none other but her, well, friend, Matsukura Ume. Come to think about it, it was probably her only real-life friend, which was weird since the guy was a fancy sheriff while she was a blacksmith. True, she was a very high ranked blacksmith, but blacksmith none the less; she always thought that he simply loved the way she forged his guns so much that he simply made it his mission to make her his friend. "Finished earlier today, eh?" He asked, finally stopping near Ryu with his dreads being done in their regular high ponytail with his furred coat resting on top of his baggy shirt. Even though he was quite annoying, sometimes, with him around Ryu felt a little less...Out of place? He was dressed casually in his same pop style and those jeans and boots. Hell, he didn't even have one of those fancy vests that they assign to any high-ranked individuals of the police force; well, he did have augmentations that would turn on his hard light armour when he was in real danger but beyond that? He looked more like sheriff wannabe if you would ask Ryu.

"No, I ended my shift at the regular time."

"Oh...! Well, um." Ume stumbled on his own words, simply looking at Ryu as leaned back and forth on heels of his feet. "Um...Wanna go grab a dri-"

"Yes." Ryu finally replied back, dropping the serious face that she was putting on before flashing a grin that showed off a row of her sharp teeth. Turning around, she gave Ume a pat on the back that nearly knocked all wind out of him before starting to walk once again while realizing that she should go a bit easier on the guy as he still seemed to get pretty nervous pretty fast in social situations. Then again, it was fun. 

A peaceful silence of the park was broken by a sudden pop rushing through the air as soon the place was filled with a fresh and cool smell of sweet melon soda...Accompanied by a muttered curse told in obviously Oni dialect. "Love the drink but those bottles obviously hate me." She mumbled, shaking her hand to shake any soda that got onto her hand from the newly bought ramune bottle.

"The trick is to not do it stupidly, you know?"

"Oh really? And how do you do it smartly? Share your wisdom with me, please~" Ryu said with an over the top sassy tone, turning to Ume as she stared him down a bit while he took his sip of green soda. Smiling softly, he simply stared off into the sky before receiving a light poke to the side of his head. "Exactly, can't bullshit your way with me." She said before the two would break into a soft laugh.

"You know, it is always nice to relax like this."

"Yeah...Still coming over tonight? They just released a new episode. It is said that the two will finally kiss."

"I wish I could but...There is an issue." He would say as his tone shifted to a bit more serious one while Ryu could notice a skin around his eyes tensing up as his stare got bit heavier. Sitting up a bit, the gunslinger would take another sip before sighing deeply as he looked at his fellow Oni. "This is something I actually wanted to talk to you about."

"Hey now, you know me, I won't get involved in your shit. You are the cops so you take care of your psychos and thieves." Ryu quickly declined, chuckling to herself as she leaned back against a tree a little. "Plus you know me, the galactic game is just two years away and tournaments are about to start in just five months. I want to be sure that I won't get kicked out for some stupid reason like last time." She said, remembering how she was literally bumped out of it for simply failing to fill the damn paper up properly. 

"Ryu, it is serious. We are talking matter of Empress life and death." Ume suddenly spoke in pretty calm and straightforward tone, earning a raised eyebrow from Ryu. Even though two were friends, sharing such information with someone who wasn't from the force and was a lot ranks lower than he was, well, unheard of. Yet he did it with such an ease and Ryu felt that he at least deserved a little less disregarding answering. "Plus, if you will help me with this, you will definitely get into the games. Hell, maybe you will manage to jump straight to Empire Forces."

In the very next moment, Ryu would practically pounce at her poor friend, wrapping her arm around his neck as she pulled him closer with a wide grin on her face that made her look like a shark that just found its prey. "Why haven't you said so earlier~?!" She said in almost menacing manner, a fire burning in her eyes as Ume coughed on air once he felt her cutting off any possible way for him to breath. 

"I-I am really glad that you care about Empress' safety so...M-uch...!" He said back with a forced grin before being finally released from such a grip. Coughing up, he rubbed the back of his neck with a light groan while checking his ear plugs to make sure that they were still there. "Woof...Well, that wasn't hard." He joked lightly before standing up. 

"So, like, is it an open case? Have you warned Empress and all that?"

Ume sighed and looked around before lightly leaning down closer to Ryu while allowing his pants to hug his hips and show off his bottom to the whole world. "Well, we are afraid that if word gets around that we know the terrorists might start moving faster. So this far, no, information is very unofficial."

"But you said we. Who else knows?"

"Well, Sir Qimaer does. He is the one who told me about information he found."

"Qimaer...Q-I-M-A-E-R...Oh!" Ryu exclaimed, slapping her hands together in a loud clap that could probably crash a rock. "Ojiisan Toji! Yeah, I remember him. He is pretty cool."

Ume sighed, running a hand through his thick beard while shooting Ryu quite tired look. "Yeah, though I did ask you not to call him that."

"Why? He is old enough to be a grandfather, he has grandchildren and he has damn huge ears even for an Elf. Plus, I am not part of your Police Force, so I don't really need to be all fancy and respecting."

Ume blinked few times before finally standing up, ending show that was his butt for a few onlookers before giving Ryu an approving nod. "Got it...I will be the one speaking."

It finally started getting late once the two finally made their way to the Colone Qimaer's station. Being, mostly, in depart of protection the ground instead of space, he was residing not too far from where Ryu worked, therefore allowing the two to get there quite fast. After signing few official papers to confirm who they were, Ume and Ryu would finally enter his office. The moment they walked in and could barely close the door, an unusual looking Elf quickly burst into a loud and hefty laugh, spreading his arms around before practically pouncing at Ume, giving him quite a hug. Elves weren't usually beardy and big therefore a lot of people would often mistake Colonel for some sort of Viking looking Human with his wide shoulders, strictly blue uniform and thick, white beard that matched his shortly cut white hair which nicely exposed his pointy ears, the only thing that showed an Elf in him. "Oh boy, am I glad to see you~! I hope the trip here was good!"

Ume, barely being able to take a breath in to stay conscious, only could smile back out of politeness while Ryu stood in the corner, watching the scene in front of her while barely keeping down the laugh. "I-I am glad to see you too, Sir Qimaer."

"Sir? Nonsense!" He said, quickly placing poor sheriff down before pointing at the closed door. "We are practically alone here, no need for formalities son!"

"See? I did tell him that he could relax but you know him, Ojiisan Toji~" Ume could swear that he saw Ryu shoot him one of those asshole-sassy looks when she addressed the Colonel in a way that he asked her not to. Yet he couldn't really respond due to fact that Colonel himself was quick to engage in conversation and also due to loss of oxygen in his lungs. 

"Ah! Lady Fujima! I am really glad that you decided to come here as well!" He said, offering her his giant bear hand. It was greeted by her hand before the sound of hands slapping rushed through the office as the two shook their hands while exchanging quite the eye contact. 

"Well, you can say that our breathless friend here knows how to convince a women."

"Ah, of course! Let us get to business then!" Eriladar said, walking over to his table and taking a seat in his large seat while looking over at both Ryu and Ume, who took their seat on the opposite side of the table. "I believe that he already informed you of the situation?" Receiving a waving hand as an answer, he nodded before looking around, making sure that there truly was no one before his warm smile dropped and his face took a more serious look in an instance, showing off all the wrinkles that appeared on his face with age. "While information has no official data to back itself up, I assume that there is a terrorist group that wishes to attack our dear Empress Dratha."

"She has, like, whole Empire to protect herself. How can they actually do it?" Ryu said back with a chuckle while crossing her legs, causing her muscles to huge her shirt tighter. "Better question should be, how can they be preparing for such huge attack without being noticed?"

This earned a heavy sigh from Eriladar as he looked off into the window, looking at the layout of the city before speaking quietly. "Leech Gambit Canon." The words rushed through the room as Ume's eyebrows narrowed, already knowing the information, while Ryu simply groaned while dropping the smug smile on her face. "I and Ume believe that they plan to make a quick attack on innocent village somewhere off from the main area, gathering all of their energy before using it for the massive blast shot."

"And the worst thing is that we don't know who is behind the group this time nor where they might attack or resign. Therefore, we can't go public about it." Ume quickly backed Eriladar up, looking over at Ryu. "Colonel can't investigate, he is too big to be unnoticed...In terms of his rank." Hearing a soft chuckle from the Elf, Matsukura decided to continue; "This is why you and I go there. We won't cause suspicion."

Ryu took a deep breath in, looking down at the table as she remained quiet for some long, irritating moments before casually shrugging her shoulders. "Sure, I am in." 

There was a moment of quietness before Colonel would smash his hands against the table, causing practically all things to jump up a tiny bit before breaking into another laughter. "That's right! That's the spirit! Then I believe that you two already know where you are heading?"

Before Ryu could say anything, Ume nodded and got up, adjusting his coat. "We do, Sir. Now let's go, I will explain the details on the way there."

"Perfect. Then feel free to use a special craft. I can't grand you anything too fancy but you can use sheriff's craft for it...And oh! Before I forgot!" The Elf would quickly get up, walking over to a massive chest-like box that was standing in his office before opening it with some digital password in some Elf dialect. Reaching inside, he would speak to Ryu with his back to her, having quite excited tone. "Ryu, dear, do you remember the katana you crafted for previous Galactic Games?"

"Ye. I also remember how I wasn't allowed to keep it since I am not part of 'trained forces'." She said, applying quite a ridiculous tone to two last words to emphasize on how displeased she was with the fact that she wasn't allowed to keep a sword that she crafted for herself. She even got that fancy ore that only could be found on her home planet, which made things that much worse. "Why though?"

"Well, things might get...Heated in there. And Ume already has his assigned weapon to deal with it. So I felt like it was natural that you should be granted a...Means of defence as well." He would pull away from the box before turning around, holding quite hefty looking katan in his arms that was currently resting in its dark crimson scabbard; or, to be more precise, its saya. "I pulled on few strings, saying that you were interested in training to be part of army forces and therefore wished for your katana. So-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence though as Ryu would quickly pounce forward, grabbing her sword from his hands before giving him a quick and strong handshake. "My gods, you are one of the good ones, aren't you?!" Receiving a soft blush and another loud laugh as the reply, Ryu would grin like a bloodthirsty {blood zombie}, staring down at her katana before lightly pulling it a little bit out of its saya with a satisfying click. She would stare at the dark surface of the metal as Ume sighed softly, imagining that things probably will get violent more than once. "Now this is good~."


	2. Chapter II: Too Loud.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people like shady places with loud music and ability to get anything they might want with enough credits. But Ryu? Those places annoy her. She simply wants to drink her melon soda and enjoy her adventure, not to waste her time and sword skills on some second class rich boy.

Once outside, the two would take the vehicle that was assigned to them. Almost immediately Ume would start to look around the whole thing form the inside and outside, noticing all the little details his eye could see from the first glance. While he was never a big fan of piloting or driving, he knew a thing or two about constructing things, preferring to know how fast and durable their transport could be in an intense situation. And as he would make some mental notes in his head while turning it on, Ryu would clearly be less interested in where she was sitting or what was around her in general as her gaze was focused on the katana that was resting on her lap. 

Upon making sure that it was well kept indeed, she would pull on the handle of the thing, pulling the blade outside of its saya with the satisfying sound of the clear metal running along the surface. As her grin was practically stretching from ear to ear, she stared at the perfectly smooth surface of the dark blade before swiftly running her finger along the edge of the blade. A trail of blood would run from the light scar on her finger while the blade was as clean as ever, earning a nod from the Oni who was holding it.

"You know, maybe you could relax with the whole stabbing and slicing thing for now?" Ume said, carefully, while his eyes were focused on the area around them as he made sure to not bump into anyone accidentally. 

"I am just checking. I want to make sure that those assholes didn't accidentally ruin my precious baby~" She chuckled, sticking her long tongue out and running it along the scar, covering it with a thick layer of saliva before quickly pushing the sword back into its saya. "So, where are we heading? Into some ghetto on the outskirts of the Galaxy to meet up with some fancy mafia bosses?" 

Sighing through Ryu's chuckles, Ume would lean back and turn the autopilot of their vehicle for the general direction they were heading to before turning his head to her. "First, most mafia bosses actually stay as close to capital as possible. Second, there is only one place where we can possibly go; Tetryl Gekido."

"Oh, so we are going to a fancy shit hole. Nice~"

Ume chuckled as well, leaning back in his seat though not too fat since there wasn't a lot of space before looking at the front window, watching how they would start to slowly fly out into the open space. "Well, the information we seek is unofficial. We will be practically buying illegal intel on people we assume might be connected to the case as well as getting general information. And what place could be better than the jewel of underground world and even for all soft-core criminals?"

"Still surprised that Empress allowed such place to be in her Empire. And not only in her Empire, but right in the neighbouring solar system."

"Well", Ume spoke while pressing the button to allow the transport to enter into jumping mod so it would prepare for the jump to another solar system, "What were the options? Either she grants all shady people their own part in her Empire and keeps them under control or they rage around entire Galaxy."

Ryu bobbled her head left and right for the few seconds before nodding, leaning back as well while running her thumb over the part of her katana that separated handler with the blade. "Well, true. The place just rubs me the wrong way."

"Because you are Oni?"

"That too. Why do you think you rarely see any of my type there? Unless they overdose on drugs to the point of becoming vegetables, we dislike this whole thing with loud music and sex and shady assholes. Blech." 

"Well, at least we are going to the good part instead of the worst, right?" Ume said, trying to lighten the mood somewhat as he could see the destain in Ryu's eyes already. People never usually liked criminal places, unless they themselves were shady, but it was different for Oni. Any, well, normal Oni always had a strong moral code. And while they could vary they would always have some common basis at their core, and those bases would almost always go against places like Kharda. "Just, try to relax, okay? We will go in, meet with certain Intel and get out."

"Yeah, that's what is always planned; yet it never goes as planned and-...Wait, you already found intel?"

He chuckled, shaking his hand left and right lightly. "Well, not fully? See, in rare cases when police force needs help from people in Tetryl Gekido, we contact information brokes. So we will meet with the one I heard my, um, coworkers refer to."

Ryu only grunted as the only answer, leaning back and placing her boots on the front panel of the ship's control area to show her utter destain with the plan. "Well, if something goes South, we can at least go with plan B."

"Which is...?"

"Physical persuasion?"

In a matter of but a few moments, their ship would finally reach the solar system, finishing their jump. Light from the system's burning red sun would quickly hit their eyes as truly bleak and empty solar system opened before them. Being mostly on the outskirt of the Kasai's Empire territory, whole placed had almost nothing. You could see their cool star which desperately was trying to make up for its lack of heat with bright, bleeding red colour. There were two planets, one of the worst planets in the entire Galaxy, with one of them being a haven for pollution and another being...Well, an example of what might happen when pollution mixes with some sort of energies. Pollution on itself is already bad, but when enormous amounts of it mixed with some sort of dark energies unleashed there hundreds of years ago? Well, it still looked like a decaying mess. Truly, this was a place which only mad villain who was trying to build most secure base ever would not pass by. As far as its neighbouring planet? Well, it was a prison for criminals who broke laws in their other prison. Where Tetryl Gekido tried to be somewhat civilized, this was the place where they sent worse of the worse...And people higher-ups didn't like occasionally. 

Noticing all the grunts that Ryu was making, as well as how loudly she was making them, Ume quickly guessed that his fellow Oni friend was less than happy to see this system by itself, let alone all the corrupted planets. So he quickly turned to the planet, aiming for the port which would lead them straight to the heart of it all. 

While having his own sense of justice, Ume couldn't help but admire the whole thing in a weird. There it was, another polluted plant filled with criminals and bunch of no ones. And there, somewhere to the South, was a massive crater. Crater, which land was ripped out of it and suspended into the air, with a behemoth of a building resting on top of it. And all of the lights made the really easy job of making the place seem, well, noticeable. You wouldn't just see from space, no, people who would fly too close to Kharda would often get signals on their radars; the whole place was as big, and armoured, as a middle-class warship. It was, like, flying corrupted castle among polluted hell; and Ume couldn't help but to admire it in a weird way. 

But his admiration would end there since, as soon as they would finally go through the defense field and make their way out of the ship, the reality would kick in; almost right away, sights of all kinds of provoking and shady people hit their eyes along with the guards armored to the teeth, who acted as local 'police', along with all kinds of crazy smells and loud music. Grinding her teeth against each other the best she really could, Ryu simply showed her displeased with the whole thing once again. Luckily for both of them, and guards most likely as well, they were allowed to keep their weapon. They were warned that even slightly questionable action will be quickly resolved with any sort of needed measurements but hey, at least she had her katana. Now Ume just hoped that she wouldn't use it. 

As they walked, Ryu would actually bend her back forward and hunch over from the pure annoyance, looking around the place. To the left, a bright shop with all the questionable types of drugs and substances. To the right, a huge 'theatre' that would provide any type of sexual services with drugs from, probably, that very shop. NJot like they didn't have those theatres back at home, but at least there they were...Better. Plus, all the raging lights really weren't helping. And, while she had protection from lights in a face of her lovely glasses, music and all the voice were still a problem.

Nevertheless, Ryu would be awakened from her begrudging slumber by quite a punch to her shoulder from Ume which seemed like he was trying to call out for her for quite some time at this point. "Ryu! Club!" Those were only words that she could somewhat understand, following his finger up at the huge and yellow sigh of the upcoming club that they were approaching. It looked like most of the music was raging exactly from there. So, naturally, Ryu would brace herself for another wave of sounds before making a quick turn there. 

To her, pleasant, surprise the sounds were actually gone once she was inside. Well, not completely gone, but much quieter. Too quiet compared to what was happening outside. "U-Uh...Did my ears pop already?"

"No, this is how they work, as simple as that." He said, getting in as well before quickly providing the security robots with the special access-key they had. "They make it much louder on the outside to attract people, you know?" Once the key card was approved as the one of the higher class, showing that Ume and Ryu had resources to potentially spend, two robots would lower the yellow barrier in front of them, allowing the two finally walk inside. 

Following her sheriff friend, she would look around the place, seeing all the people with all the music and all the lights and drinks and everything and...And it was just so annoying. It was really the type of thing that would make Ryu want to grab and smash something nearby. But she had a feeling Ume wouldn't really let her. "So, who are we meeting?"

"I will have to go look around for them, that would probably be our best guess. You can relax here for now. Or, you know, try to?"

Replying only with a grunt of her own, she would quickly depart from Ume to head to the bar of the whole place, deciding that she might as well get herself a drink while she waits for him to do his shady stuff. "Police force my ass." She mumbled to herself, practically pushing people away from her as she headed to the bar if not for the fact that people were already moving away from her. Even if you weren't really a fighter of any sorts, feeling Ryu's aura was still quite easy and very much enough to avoid her by a long shot. Alas, finally reaching the bar, she would take her seat at it while leaning on the table, wondering if people around here really felt comfortable being all cramped up like this. "Oi, I will have melon soda, big."

Confusion on the bartender's face was more than obvious as he looked around and back to Ryu, wondering if she was already drunk to make a sure order. Yet, once her piercing eyes would shoot through him with the intensity of dragon ready to attack, he would simply give her a nod and quickly pop a bottle of melon soda, pouring it in one of the fancy glasses around before quickly placing it near Oni lady which was oozing with kill desire. 

She made her payment and simply took the glass, bringing it to her lips before allowing the bubbly liquid to fill her mouth. Rushing against her tongue, biting it with its buzzing substance and filling her with a sweet aroma of summer melon, Ryu would swallow down the drink while finally feeling the tiniest bit better. She even thought to herself that, if she blacks out everyone and everything around her out and focuses on that screen on top of her with some anime playing on it, then maybe she can even spend this time somewhat peacefully. But, it looked like Cosmos had different ideas for her. 

"Darling, have nobody told you that you suppose to order alcohol in the bar~?" A sickly sweet voice rang from the right before a guy took a seat next to her with his, how it looked like, bodyguards standing right near him. "Here, let me help you~" It wasn't enough that he looked like he fell out of slug's anus with his gelled hair and fancy outfit, no, but that was voice was like Nolxux's honey. 

Feeling quite sick already and seeing a glass of alcohol being moved closer to her, Ryu would simply and slowly move her cold and dead serious eyes over to the boy before grabbing the glass with liquid inside of it. Yet, instead of drinking, she would suddenly drop right at his feet before moving her head away with the same amount of care with which she started it; so none. 

"Aw, you are a fighter, aren't you~?" The boy kept on going, leaning in closer as a weird grin appeared on his lips. "I like the fighting type. They always act the most submissive in bed~"

This was essentially reaching the point of ridiculous as Ryu couldn't tell if she was in just a shitty bar or shitty fanfiction. Still, taking another sip of her drink, she mostly ignored his comment. "Say, have you ever had a girl trying to put her pocket knife through your hand?"

"Oh? Why want me to help get yours out of your pockets~?"

Taking the final gulp of the drink, she simply moved the glass away so it wouldn't get harmed before looking over at him. After few more silent moments of staring, her hand quickly wrapped around the base of her katana before pulling it out. With swift and satisfying sound, the blade ran out of its saya before she tensed her muscles up, bringing the whole thing down like a meteor of sorts as the blade ran right through boy's flesh and the bartender's table with ease. Running the blade right through the wrist of his hand, and therefore right through his palm's artery and radial styloid, she made sure that he was not only stuck in this position but also the bleeding would look like there was a whale dying there. 

Deciding to capitalize on the guards' confusion, who were as incompetent as they boy himself, Ryu quickly rose up from her seat and placed the palm of her hand on the back of the head of one of them. With the strength of ten mammoths, she would jerk his head down, slamming it right against the metallic table so hard that the lights under it begun flickering and spastic out. As his body falls on the ground, face a bloody mess full of metal and glass bits, the other guard was smart enough to drop the gun immediately and make a run for his life.

But just when she thought that her little problem was finally done, she heard a few people pulling out guns right at her all around the place, those obviously being a security of the club itself. "Ah, come on, you saw that he started it." Ryu groaned out before grabbing the handler of her sword, swiftly pulling it out and allowing the boy to fall on the ground as blood just kept on gushing out. "Better take care of rich pants over here. I sliced through quite a lot of veins there, he can bleed to death and all."

"Ma'am, place your weapon down and allow us to take you to the chief of security."

The fact that those nobodies were speaking in such monotonous and boring tone already pissed Ryu off, but the fact that they asked her to give up her sword so soon after she just got it really tipped her off. With a jerking motion, she got the blood off her blade before placing it on her shoulders, looking at the guards around her a slowly, crimson blood aura started building around her. "Oh? Well, you welcome to try and take me." 

Yet, just at the very moment one of the security personnel tried to take step closer, a loud clap rushed through the place. As all eyes moved to its source, Ume walked out along with a person who was responsible for said clapping. It was a guy who's clothing couldn't be tighter and more revealing. One might confuse that purple haired freak of nature as some sort of exotic dancer, but based on response everyone gave him, it was clear that he was bit higher than that. "Darlings, please, do lower your guns. She is a friend of my dear guests, so allow us to relax."

"Yes, Sir Àsma!"

Ryu grunted as she kept her sword where it was, turning around and looking at Ume, who shot her quite the confused look mixed with a bit of disappointment because she couldn't keep things calm for even few moments before looking over at the guy. "And you are...?"

The purple haired Siren smiled at her, giving her a little bow before giving her a few elegant blinks with his curled eyelashes. "Seredine Àsma, owner of this lovely place and your friend's intel. But you may call me Sere. Say, shall we move to my office~?"


	3. Chapter III: Slums

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loud musing is annoying, horny and drunk people are even more annoying yet slums are not better per say. But sometimes you got to travel to less lovely places in order to hunt down your enemy.

Even though her katana was nicely resting at her lower back, Ryu still had her hand around the handler of the sword, making sure that nothing shady would happen. The whole situation from before already proven that the place wasn't good and the fish boy wasn't really helping her feel more secure as they were standing in the elevator while it went up, going to his office where he wanted to discuss things more privately. 

Upon finally reaching his office, which was a simple VIP room on the second floor of the club's building, all three of them walked inside and locked the mechanical door behind them to make sure no one would walk inside. The place looked, less or more, presentable and tight, with all the things resting where they should be. The only unorthodox thing about this all was the loud music and massive one side window that giving a clear view of the whole club. Still, the place was calmer than the downstairs club area and therefore Ryu felt a little bit better than before. 

So, take your seats. Want anything to drink or eat?" He would ask, taking a seat at his table which was right in front of the said window, indicating that it was a table for the boss of the place. "I, after all, want you to feel nice and relaxed. Kinda the point of the whole place."

"Oh, I bet that guy is leaving your place plenty relaxed~" Ryu quickly bitten back, grinning and showing off her razor-sharp teeth while taking her own seat at one of the couches. She would simply drop in there, leaning back into its soft material while spreading her legs seemingly as far as she could. Meanwhile, her katana was nicely resting on her lap with her hand worryingly resting on its handler.

"Ah, I am sure he is. You are quite good with it, are you not, Fujima-chan."

"What kind of Oni would I be if I wouldn't be?"

"Hm, I dunno. But I can tell that you are missing your mark, are you not?" His aqua blue eyes swiftly moved to her while subtle mocking smile stretched across his lips. 

For one reason or another, it seemed to have an effect on Ryu as a clicking sound of katana leaving its saya could've been heard. Yet, before anything could've moved any further, a pop rang through the room. As both moved their eyes to the source, they would look at Ume, who was currently holding a ramune bottle with soda spilling out of it. "So, now that I got your attention, information; care to share?" 

Tension seemed to die off, even though just a bit, as Ryu simply pushed her katana back into saya before closing her eyes and resting for a bit. Sere, on the other hand, would nod and quickly pull up a digital screen of his computer system, opening few files. "So, you need any sort of Elf extremist activities, right?"

"Terrorist activities would be ideal, but yes, at least that."

"Well, while there haven't been any terrorists as of late, I have dealt with some extremists lately."

"You...Have?"

Confusion in Ume's voice would amuse Sere a bit as he nodded, leaning bit in his chair. "Indeed, Matsukura-kun. It is bad to not build relationships here. I simply have pointed them in directions to get what they needed to get, nothing serious, but I do know of them. Which is special. After a failed coup in Kayaku Empire, Elf terrorists died down a lot. This is, by far, your biggest and only lead."

Ume looked at the screens, reading some information on them with great care before allowing a troubled sigh to escape his lips. "I see that we will have to move to a lower level?"

"You mean down to the actual planet? Yup. But worry not as I am coming with you~"

"Hey now!" Ryu suddenly exclaimed, almost jumping up from her seat as she looked at the two, suddenly getting more interested in the matter. "Why would we need a slime like you with us? If hell breaks loose you will just get in a way."

"They know me and I can help you get in calmly", he spoke softly while moving his eyes from Ume to Ryu, flashing her one unpleasant grin; "I doubt that you can get a lot of information by just storming in and killing everyone."

Ryu had a lot of complaints about it, maybe even too much, but she had to agree with what he was saying to at least some extent. Plus, once she realized that if he gets them inside fighting all those assholes will be easier, tension on her forehead smoothed out as she stood up from the couch, securing her katana at her lower back. "Fine. Then let's move out, we don't have too much time."

As they headed out, the trio looked less than...ideal. Ume was probably the only one who looked more or less ready with his bio-synthetic chest piece being ready to spring on at any given moment to protect him from any danger. But as far as Ryu and Sere went? Yeah, things could've been better. The Oni, for once, looked like she was just taking a stroll through the clubs with her otaku outfit as the only things that were giving away her being a warrior were her katana and more than dominating aura burning around her with crimson colour, at her control as of now. Sere, on the other hand, was simply dressed in some sort of dancer clothes; they were quite skin tight and revealing of his hips and chest even though it was hard to tell since they were of the same ocean blue colour as his skin. "What do you get out of this anyways? Seems risky to put your own hide on the line for our Empress."

"Fujima-chan", Sere said while looking over to her as he opened his private elevator which led from his club down to a privately owned parking area, "Your Empress has a relationship with ministers of this world. Ministers rule this world. I help you, Empress, get my share of credit and get on ministers good side. Once I do, my club and I will be the number one club destination for all party goers; simple~."

You could see how Ryu's face slowly stretched out in disgust and pure confusion of how one can want that of all things. Deciding that she will never understand and that she does not want to understand, she simply shook her head and walked inside the elevator, making sure to have Ume between her and Sere which she clearly didn't like. 

"So, got any pieces of advice for us?" Ume asked, trying to lighten up the situation as the elevator smoothly went down.

"Well...Act casual. Or don't. Honestly, wing it...Or don't~" Sere would say, contradicting himself with every next word and thus showing that there was no established way of how to survive once you were down there. Speaking of down, soon the elevator would come to a stop and all three of them would appear in some sort of private hangar, full of various vehicles ranging from basic to fancy ones, with the primary amount being the ship type. "Here, this one, we don't want to stand out too much after all." He would say, pointing at the rather average looking car. It wasn't broken down or anything but nor it was expensive; a basic ship. But for people of down there, it would be considered as fancy, showing that person had class without blowing their mind with actually expensive ships.

Getting inside the brown and slightly bulky machine, Ryu would be quick to occupy entire back area by laying there and putting her boots against the wall. Once they were ready to leave, Sere opened the door of the said hangar and started up the ship as Ume finally had the chance to actually see the place. 

Ume was not sure what he was expecting to see but it wasn't that...Bad? The place looked kinda like slums but a good kind of slums at the very least? Those were buildings that first colonists tried to build when they just came here, when they still had hope, that were now breaking down and in barely working conditions. Those were factories that were meant to mine the planet for its resources which now turned into massive public houses for people to live at or some sort of weird and shady markets. Those were streets filled with trash that no one really bothered to take up for a really long time and people that crowded the streets that they could, which weren't a lot since nature started slowly taking its own territory back. Those were animals and nature poisoned by pollution, growing through the ground and surviving the best they could to start taking the city back bits by bits. 

If one would close enough, they could even see where actual houses ended and where the things that settlers of those slums were trying to build on themselves. It was like an almost elegant outline of things breaking down and being attempted to be fixed by all kinds of nearby trash. Honestly, the whole place would've probably been a total hell at this point if not for Tetryl Gekido. While they never really cared for the slums below themselves, they had to keep the appearance of the place up. So they would assign some police-like forces that would force some sort of peace and keep place safe-ish. Like a glorified prison town. You could actually see few good looking mansions that were police stations, shielded by massive walls and electric fields from anyone who would try to break in. Which were rare and few; if you were lucky enough to take down the police station, Ministers of Tetryl Gekido would rain a true hell on you. 

"That is really..."

"Impressive?"

Ume blinked few times, looking away from the town below them. His eyes met Sere's gaze that was pointed somewhere at the horizon, a soft and calm smile resting on his green lips. "You can say that?"

"You must admit that our beloved Ministers did a really good job fixing this place up, hm?"

"You mean assigning police and some building materials?"

Sere would suddenly burst into a heartful laugh, placing a hand on his cheek before cooing his head to the side as his eyes moved away from the horizon and onto his fellow detective friend. "No, police actually do barely anything there. It's our neighbour who scares them." Receiving quite puzzled look from his companion, Siren would quickly shake his head before leaning a bit closer to him. "There are only three planets in this dying system. You surely have seen other two, right? One looked even worse than this planet while the other was simply oozing death, right?"

Ume remembered the feeling he got when they were flying closer to Kharda. Even though he looked at the said planet only for a few moments, he did felt it; like there was something wrong there. Like, seriously wrong. Not the 'oh no, everything dies' type of wrong but 'oh no, everything dies in a way that it suppose not die in' way. 

Receiving a slow now once again, Sere closed his eyes before nodding himself, as if confirming assumptions that Ume might've had. "Yup, the one that was bad but wasn't the worse. To the left of the sun. Not the oozing one." He spoke, describe less disturbing planet of the system but quite bad looking planet nevertheless. "It is simply called K-VI. Nothing special, generic and official name. You break few laws they have here? You get sent there."

Ume would actually gasp out softly, a single drop of sweat running down the side of his face as his assumptions weren't fully correct. "Is it that much worse than here?"

Sere would extend his hand all of the sudden, brushing the single bit of sweat off from his face before leaning even closer, inching his face to his newest friend's face, speaking very quietly and slowly. "Lawless place where people who are not even good enough for this place live? Trust me, it is true hell. Place where people go really", he paused before smiling and finishing with a heavy breath escaping his lips and hitting Ume's, "Deprive~"

Then, very suddenly and unexpectedly, someone's boot rushed from the backseats, connecting with Sere's face. Sending Siren almost against the front wind of their vehicle, Ryu would growl softly while staring at both from the backseats. "I am really glad that you two are having a great time together, but are we close already?" Hearing the clear anger in her voice, and not wanting to end up with his jaw actually broken after another kick, Sere simply smiled and patted the red spot on his cheek before moving back to panel as he started to set coordinates for the landing spot while Ume got that look from Ryu; you know, the look your older sibling might give you when you were about to do something bad. Yeah, that one. Was kinda wholesome honestly. 

Sooner than later, you might say, they would finally reach the ground. Getting out of the vehicle, Ume would stretch his legs out from sitting too much while Sere took a deep breath, enjoying him in some weird way. Ryu? Ryu growled and sighed, looking around the place while trying not to breathe too much as they air itself felt packed with sweats and all kinds of smells coming from people around them. 

Quickly making their way from the area that could've been called parking area, which was right by the police station and indicated that it was protected and therefore for high class personal, the trio would walk down the street. As they passed various ogling residents of the city along with some loud shop owners, that were trying their best to lure in new consumers with their half-assed flashy signs and various second class vares, Sere would lead them to one of the factories. It was just past the 'lively' part of the city where all people gathered around to buy something cheap from some people that based their stores right outside of their houses' doorsteps, probably not having enough credits to get an actual spot in one of the actual markets. Once they would leave that street with all its noises, things got a bit...Tense? 

This street was clearly darker and quieter than previous one, with creaking buildings looming over their heads as they walked. And, even though Sere looked pretty relaxed, Ume already had his hands in his pockets, near his guns, while Ryu never removed the handle from the hilt of her katana. There were even few moments when Ryu almost pulled it out due to some sneeze from somewhere that was too loud or someone dropping something. "Damn, you can smell disease and rot in here."

"Yup. This is the place for poorest of the poor. I believe that most of them don't even eat fresh products. It's kinda, like, either rotten or a complete mush."

"Disgusting." Ryu spoke under her breath, looking at all the buildings with their peeling paint and dark colours. "They are worse than animals."

"Oh? Are you saying they are to blame for being in such situations? Perhaps being even born into such situations?" Sere spokes, his eyes half open as he looked at Ryu from the corner of his eyes even though he was lying about the last part.

"They are to blame for not trying to improve." Ryu quickly barked back, not even giving him a look while Ume felt quite assaulted as he was between Sere and Ryu. 

Finally, they would come to a factory, one that looked even bigger and more broken than the rest. It was really far from the living area, seemingly extremely empty as it was on the outskirt of the city, very close to the wild region where nature was slowly taking back its territory. Smiling, Sere would still walk closer to the door and give it a few knocks in a specific rhythm. After but a few moments door would open wide as a guard would be standing there. From his bulky and oppressing looking gear, that you would imagine seeing in some sci-fi dystopian anime, you could clearly tell that he was an Elf who was wearing armour with the design of last decay or two. After a brief exchange of words, he would wave his hand, showing Ume and Ryu that they should follow inside. 

Trying their best to act casual, and by that Ume tried to look relax and cool while Ryu tried to look pissed and agitated, both of them would step inside before finding out something they didn't hope to find. Even though they suspected that some sort of Elf terrorist organization was starting to act, they did not expect to find a full on working factory which was buzzing with soldiers and workers, producing gear and weapons at insane paste. Armor, guns, grenades, if one would look close enough they would even see workers getting ready few heavy mechs, something that humans and Elves still liked very much in their battles. And, while Kharda had regulations which would not allow for any sort of heavy weaponry due to Tetryl Gekido policies that they inforced to appease Empress Dratha, it was quite clear that things that those Elves were working with were obviously not of some basic level. We are talking proper military gear. Suddenly, threat felt more real and closer than it did before.


	4. Chapter IV: Face to Screen.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cashing bad guys all across the galaxy and through various galactic parties is fun, but sometimes you just want to break some stuff and punch some people, right? Well, since Ryu feels like that almost always, she was quite happy to find herself in the situation where that was finally possible.

The first thing that Ryu would notice is that how hot the whole place was, literally very hot. And coming from Oni that meant quite a lot. Everyone was rushing back and forth, running from one assembly line to the other, managing twenty things at once while all the heat from people and machines simply kept on building up and up, causing this sweaty hell. It was clear that they were developing weapons and armour of sorts here, and as a skilled blacksmith, Ryu could've told that it was no 'softcore' weaponry. "So, I assume that you finally managed to get it?" A tall bodyguard elf asked, causing Ryu to look over at him before she quickly bit down on her tongue, remembering that she was supposed to play this silent and grumpy Oni guard role. 

"Oh, of course,~! Here, my friend helped me smuggle it in~." Sere would quickly lie, wrapping his arm around Ume's neck as he pulled him closer while his soft smiled spread across his lips. Looking at Ume, he would lightly point down, causing him to sigh lightly before he would pull his guns out. He did not like this one bit but it had to be done if they were to get information; and honestly, since he just went from having only rumours to seeing actual terrorists in flesh, Ume was ready to pay that price.

So he pulled his guns, two magnums whose design only could rival with their heavily look before placing them down on the table in front of them. With barely anyone paying them any attention, he would start to pull and press on some buttons and triggers here and there, slowly taking the whole thing apart one by one before stripping them down to their core. At their base, they weren't even kinetic or laser weapons; they were conductors. Conductors for Ume's powers that helped him use the said blade with minimal damage to oneself. Inside, there was a mechanism that would conduct energy from him into the guns and in the centre of it all were two crystals. Those were Lilac Heuldines. Those little gems were from sorosilicate mineral family, close relatives of hemimorphites. Often, people who used any sort of energy techniques would use those little gems as conductors for their powers; sometimes even amplifiers. With their density being higher than any other gem of such sort by at least quarter of a gram per cubic centimetre, they were often the best option, even though quite rare in their own right. And those little, smokey lilac coloured square gems were extremely banned from any sort of public use. Often, you can get permission for weaponry with them only from Empress or, at least, Colonel and higher. Simply put, the idea of those guys getting their hands on them was...Scary. The number of weapons and things they can create with them was simply mind-blowing.

But, as Ryu was busy thinking all that over and Ume was busy trying to get over a loss of his guns, Sere was master of pretending; grinning wide, he would pat Ume on the back before stepping to the guard, flapping his long eyelashes as he blinked. "So, I believe that I deserve a certain payment for that, correct~?"

"Correct~" Voice rushed through the entire factory and even though machines were roaring to their fullest, everyone heard it. Putting stop to all their work in an instance, like some sort of toy soldiers, they turned around and took a proper stand to greet the person to who this voice belonged. And, while Sere knew too damn well who it was, Ume and Ryu were caught a bit off guard with this whole thing, Turning around, their eyes would lay on an android unit that was slowly approaching them. By the looks of it, said android was of either very old Earth design or very minimalistic; maybe both. It was purely white, from head to toes, a smooth layer of whatever made up its skin. Only lines of separation which could've been seen were those at her elbows, waist and such areas where the body would need to bend, twist and such. And even there, those lines were just a thing and black ones, barely noticeable due to the whiteness of the surface. It also had no face, instead, the area where the face was supposed to be was simply glowing a bit with an even whiter glow. It was naked and therefore its female structure could've easily been seen; probably the only thing that was out of the place were few cables which were going out of the back of her head and down to her spine, all wrapped in a nice synthetic cable-sleeve. "Do not worry about it, we already moved the payment to your account." The voice, that was seemingly just coming from it, was that of old women. She had a soothing and old voice, that of a mother, with a light British accent. And while Ryu only stared down her, clearly not liking its stereotypical female hour shape of a body, Ume had a weird...Itch. That voice was somewhat familiar to him.

"Aw, Lady Stoke, you have my gratitude for business well done~" Sere would quickly pick himself up, giving her even a bow of sorts as he took her synthetic hand and placed a kiss on it. And while he was doing a nice job of taking her attention of the two, Ume's itch only grew. If it was Stoke about which he was thinking, it wasn't good by the longest shot.

"Oh, stop it, my dear, you flatter me...So, where you managed to find those two?" She asked, her attention swiftly moving from the Siren that was too eager to get on her good side to a Human and Oni that were standing behind him. Jerking her hand from his grasp in almost disregarding manner, she walked past him while her head was aiming in Ume's general direction. "To find a high ranking defector nowadays? You clearly have my interest. What is your name boy?" 

Her sweet voice and elegant manner of speech clearly was not something that Ume has expected as he coughed into his fist, brushing a momentary blush that formed on his cheeks before quickly offering her a hand. Once his skin made contact with the cold surface of her synthetic body, something snapped in his head as he quickly bowed down as well, giving it a kiss as he tried to show his manners. It tasted of very strong cleaning chemicals. "It's Matsukura Ume, Ma'am." It took him quite some mental power to remember all kinds of manners he needed to do and, by the look of things, it worked?

She seemed relaxed and not tense as her voice was still smooth and soft, indicating that she at least wasn't angry with his performance. "Ah, I see. I do hope you are enjoying the stay here. This is not much, but worry not, it will be more soon~" Before he could really process the implications behind the grim statement, android would quickly turn around on her heels as she looked now at Ryu as the air felt a little...Heavier. "Hm...I do guess that taking Oni was bodyguard makes sense." She spoke in a pretty disregarding manner as, while her smooth voice was still the same, a clear shift in tone from nice to more displeased one was clear. Walking slowly over to her, as every step of her heel against iron floor echoed through the building, she would stare down at Ryu who, sadly or not, was staring back at her. "You are probably ashamed of yourself, eh? To be a bodyguard of some thug on such planet. Honorable race, huh?"

While Ume pieced things more and more in his head, trying to slowly step back and retrieve his gems from the table, the tension between the android lady and Ryu only grew and grew. Ryu, somewhat to Ume's surprise, was quiet. He expected her to snap back, but no, instead she simply stared her down with those eyes of hers; and it wasn't a usual stare, oh no. All the right muscles in her face tensed up as her pupils grew smaller, only causing her yellow iris to look that much tenser. She would bring her shoulders up, stretching her clothes to their limit with her body as she tilted her head to the side, giving Stroke back quite a disregarding stare as if she was staring at some sort of dirt on her shoe. 

That would go on for quite a few moments as Ume could tell that the guard who originally allowed them in and Sere were already getting a bit sick as they had some hard time standing. Understandably so as Ryu's aura was simply oozing and building around her like a heavy blood-smoke; and Ume knew that, if she wanted, she could make at least half of all those people pass out with it if she really wanted. "Relax, was just a joke. I don't have time to be picking fights with Oni~" Stoke finally spoke, her soft and welcoming tone coming back to her voice even though her sentence by itself was quite disregarding. But, when everyone thought that the tension was over and that things could get a bit more relax, her body twisted around at troubling speed as she extended her hand out, clearly aiming for Ryu. "But I do have time for stomping filth away~"

Having no other option but to defend herself, Ryu quickly pulled on her katana, sliding it outside of her saya. In a matter of moments, she would put it between herself and the charging arm, aiming the dark blade at the aggressor. But, to her surprise, what followed wasn't a sound of metal being sliced up but instead a clonk as her hand connected with the blade, unfazed and unharmed. Unlike Ume and Sere, who were still trying to understand what was going on, Ryu was a bit faster at thinking; as she quickly realized that material from which that robot was made was quite dense, she already started thinking about all the possible counter-attacks she could've done. 

Dragging her blade up along the palm of her hand, Ryu would bring her katana as high as she could diagonally before dropping it. Yet, instead of allowing it to simply drop on the ground, she quickly caught the handler of the sword with her left hand. Aiming the tip of the said handler now at the android, she would proceed with the attack, slamming it right in the abdomen of the android. And, to her actual surprise, android's body went flying across the factory, slamming into few machines on its way before hitting the floor. She knew that slicing her wouldn't work in that moment so she decided to try using impact damage of her blunt handler, and it worked just fine. 

Noticing how guard, who allowed them in, already started edging his hand closer to the gun at his hip, Ryu stomped her foot onto the ground. As it cracked and crushed under her foot, crimson aura started building around her before its force and presence would echo through entire factory. In a blink of an eye, said a guard and more than half of the works would start to stumble around in very sick manner, some falling dead on the ground as ones who managed to be far enough fro Ryu simply started to run out from the back door. Ume, shaking his head, grabbed falling Sere who was clearly not prepared for such aura, yet he still was conscious. But, just as Ume tried to reach for the gems, he noticed how they simply were gone. "Are you looking for those~?" A singing voice rushed through the factory as android's body slowly got up from the trashed machines which it hit previously, showing off gems that she held in her hand. "I thought that I might as well grab them on my way here~"

"Oi!" Ryu barked back, staring down the android across the room while clearly addressing Ume. "Grab that cunt and run out of here. I am not planning on holding back right now."

"...Try to be fast. I am sure that police will be here shortly." Ume responded quickly and bit too casually, getting Sere up before rushing out of the door. He knew a bit too well that standing around fighting Oni was not a good idea; and standing around fighting Ryu was even worse of an idea.

For a moment, it was completely quiet and somewhat peaceful in the lonely factory before the sound of groundbreaking and metal twisting filled the whole place. Ryu's aura flooded place like a river which just broke its dam. As the crimson desire grew and grew around her, affecting the place around her in the very physical way, she threw her sword from her left hand to her right hand. And, upon landing into her palm, she gripped it tightly while finally initiating the battle. 

Using her legs, she crouched down a bit before using all of her strength to bouncing herself forward. As the spot where she was standing broke down like nothing, she flew across the factory, clearly aiming for the android's body. Raising her katana up, she would perform a cutting action as the air itself seemed to part away from the edge of her blade. But android did not move, oh no, instead she simply extended her hand up. Once the blade connected with the surface of her palm once again a shockwave rushed through the factory, breaking any glass and less dense things that were in close proximity before Ryu added up to it by landing to the ground, breaking it as well. 

As she clenched the handle of her sword with both of her hands, she stared at android with unyielding desire to destroy and rip her apart while her sharp teeth showed past her lips, pressing so hard against one another one might've thought that they would break each other. "Curious." Android mumbled in almost mocking tone, taking a good look at the sword that was pressed against the palm of her hand before looking down at Ryu. "So much force...Would that be over ten thousand newtons? And in such thinly compacted area as the edge of the blade? Remar-"

But she didn't have a chance to finish. Feeling like she had enough of that, Ryu would quickly drive her blade down before reversing it around in her hand. Now, instead of simply slicing it against android's hand, she would try other parts. In a matter of seconds, she would deliver over dozen slices, running her sword up and down and around against android's body. But all of it got only the same result, a clunking sound and her blade bouncing off the body of that stupid machine. 

It was very clear that this was not working out but Ryu seemed to...Grin. As if confirming something for herself at once, she would drive sword down into the ground with another slice, causing the ground to crack around it. The impact caused, if you will, a tiny earthquake affect as the ground would start coming apart, breaking still stand of her opponent. In that very moment, Ryu would grab android's wrist, pulling her arm closer before driving her knee right against the elbow. 

Silence rained supreme before a sudden sound of metal crushing and electricity bursting out of wires rushed through the place. Android, as if awaken from her studies by that sound, tried to jerk her arm back but Ryu had too tight of a grip. Seeing no other option, she suddenly extended her other hand and pressed it against Oni's side, releasing a blast of energy which sent Ryu to fly back across the room. Slamming against one of the machines, android looked down at her arm as a gasp left her speakers. She saw something she thought that was impossible; her arm was ripped apart below her elbow with Ryu laying against machine into which she slammed, waving the rest of her arm. "I figured you out, moron!" She yelped in quite a victorious manner, getting up while dusting herself off mockingly with android's hand. "Your body measures force and can withstand it. So I simply got to use as much force as I can", she spoke before slamming her hands together as she crushed the arm between her hands like it was but a can of soda, "and we, Onis, have no problem with that you bitch!"


	5. Chapter V: Kozeriai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, some action! Some long-awaited dancing with some excited back and forth...that ended too quickly. Hoping for something that would allow her to unwind and relax all of the tension, Ryu simply finds herself in the situation where she craves for more.

"You, an animal, dare to lay your hands on my perfect body?" A clear distaste and hatred could've been heard in her voice as she spoke, staring Ryu down while clinging the only fist that she had left. Clearly, if she had an actual face, she would've been spitting all over the place right now. But then her head moved down, noticing the katana that was still stuck in the ground next to her. Grinning on the other side of the computer that was controlling this body, she decided not to delay her revenge and went to grab the katana, aiming to attack Ryu with it. But she made a gruesome miscalculation, one which young Oni would not forgive. 

Upon grabbing the handler of the sword and trying to pull on it, she felt how her android body refused to move as the sword weight was much more than one might've thought. And, because she didn't apply enough strength to pull it, it caused her to stagger, giving Ryu enough of an opening. 

In a matter of a second, Ryu brought her arm back and made a powerful throw, sending junk that used to be android's arm right in her face. Managing to catch her off guard, she would pounce once again, launching herself from the floor. Closing the distance between the two, she easily grabbed her sword and pulled it from the ground, causing the floor to erupt from under them, sending her further off balance. 

Taking a deep breath in, Ryu sent all of her aura through her sword and concentrated it in the tip of her handler this time. Taking a half-assed stand, she jerked her sword back before thrusting it forward, connecting with android's torso. Just like a magic trick, sparks would fly everywhere once it connected with her body, crushing her synthetic skin and breaking it apart. Seeing an opening, Ryu jerked her sword back out and threw it off to the side, sticking it into the wall. With her hands now free, she clenched her fist before delivering another punch in the hole that was left after an earlier attack. With a loud crack and wires ripping as electricity dispensed into the air, her fist punched right through android's body, creating a rather noticeable hole before pulling her fist out and jumping back herself, separating herself from the synthetic body that flew against opposite wall. 

She would stand there, staring her opponent down which seemingly was not moving at all. "Well, this is not good", she mumbled quietly to herself while not moving her eyes even an inch away from the other, "either she is dead or planning something. Not sure which one is worst." As a few quiet moments passed, Ryu would hear a noise of something opening and closing; it was very faint sound indeed, something you can barely catch with your ear, but it was there. She made a mistake of moving her eyes left and right just for a second, checking her surroundings before moving her eyes back to droid's body.

Smiling behind the screen, the scientist in control of droid's body would laugh under her breath as she watched how her mechanical body managed to insert crystal she got earlier into the palm of her arm without the Oni noticing it. Deciding to take her chance, she quickly would input the code she needed, causing the body jump back to life. Extending her arm, she would face her palm at Ryu before borrowing her body slightly into the ground with magnetic surface of her feet. 

Ryu blinked in confusion, seeing the white surface of her palm slowly starting to glow red more and more before tiny whisps of electricity begun dancing along her wrist. Finally catching up on what was going on, she realized it a bit too late to dodge as a massive blast of energy emerged from droid's palm in form of a ball, flying right at her. Grabbing her handle, she pulled her sword and decided to do the only thing she had time for; thrusting her katana in front of herself with blade forward, she braced herself before feeling the energy tickling her body as it started connecting with her blade. Breathing out though, Ryu would send her aura to the blade before the massive ball of energy begun breaking into two at the edge of the blade. Once sliced apart, it hit the wall behind her on both left and right sides.

She would indeed breathe happily out in climax of her trick working out, but it was not the time right now as the droid was not about to stop her assault just now. Soon, more balls were already flying out of her palm as if her arm was some sort of machine gun. "For fuck's sake!" Ryu cursed under her breath, starting to run to her left to get the higher ground on the platform nearby while starting to slice her sword at the upcoming energy projectiles. While the energy would still tickle and scar her body as it flew past her, she managed to evade most of the damage by slicing them all up as the droid would stand there, shooting and seemingly...Observing. 

Upon finally gaining higher ground, Ryu would slice up the last of those projectiles before suddenly jumping up. Leaving herself in a quite open manner, she would bring her arm up and hold her sword much like it was a spear. Suddenly, the person who controlled the droid would get the readings of enormous amounts of aura gathering around the Oni before travelling up to her arm and then up to katana, wrapping around it in a shape of a spear none the less. With one few seconds to react, the droid brought its arm up and shot yet another projectile at Ryu at the same moment tensed all of the muscles in her arm, ready to throw her katana. Taking a swift beath in, she would release it before growling out in almost animalistic manner; "Rushing Wyrm!"

In that very moment, she would jerk her arm and throw her katana-spear as a swift sound rushed through the building; it felt like the air itself got separated from the very force of her weapon flying through it. Meeting with the energy projectile it simply penetrated right through it, reaching droid's body faster than the picture could reach the screen of person who was controlling it. In the very next moment, it would hit right in the hole that Ryu made earlier, easily flying through as there was no obstacle to stop it from penetrating through the wall behind droid's body. Once the tsuba of her katana would press against the body of the droid that was not broken, it would pull the body with the katana; slicing through the wall behind, it managed to lock the droid in one position dead on as it was fully stuck in the wall now managing to penetrate it completely, almost crushing the droid's body from its force in the process.

Sadly, even though it penetrated the energy projectile, it didn't slice it up and therefore it would eventually hit Ryu. Connecting with her body, she clenched her teeth as a low growl escaped from her lips, twisting her body a little bit as heat and electricity rushed over and through her in energy explosion caused by impact. As she felt her aura being easily penetrated and her muscles giving in under the pressure of the impact, she would fall down in a clumsy manner, hitting the floor under herself. 

"Ah, finally. I was already starting to worry but nothing calms down an animal like a good energy blast~" She practically sang into her microphone, writing down data that she collected with one hand while operating the droid with other. She would then attempt to reach down and grab onto the handler of a sword, giving it a pull before realizing that the sword didn't even start to move an inch. "Ah, as expected; it is indeed crafted specifically to be one of a kind. Heavy and sharp, that is a really dangerous combination, my dear. You shouldn't be playing with toys like that!" She exclaimed with a giggle, looking up at the fallen Oni before realizing that she...wasn't there. 

Her eyes would almost fall out of her skull as she started looking around, seeing how the body was simply not there as the smoke from the explosion cleared. "Hey, moron!" A vicious voice called from the above as the droid's head jerked up, looking at the Oni which was now holding onto the ceiling itself, sinking her sharp claws into its metal surface. Expecting some quirky line from her, she tried to get herself out of this situation before hearing something launching itself; or someone. Ryu would literally bounce herself from the ceiling, ignoring all the bruises and scars she got from overpowering effects of the energy blast she took head-on without any armour early, flying right at droid like she was some sort of damn torpedo. Once near her, she moved her knee to strike her before driving it into droid's head as Agnes, who was sitting behind the screen, saw how the charts were going crazy with simply how much force was being pumped into the body from this knee strike. 

In a matter of moment, the droid's head would both jerk back and get smushed under the knee before its neck would break from so much force, flying back against the wall and hitting it before bouncing away. Ryu, landing safely on her feet, cracked the poor floor once again as she connected with it before grabbing her katana. "Fucking never", she started saying before sliding the katana out of the wall with just one hand like it was nothing, "think that one pity blast is enough to stop me!" Growling at her opponent she would clench her razor teeth in anger, waving her crimson hair away with a shake of her head before slicing vertically across the body with so much force that it felt like the air itself was sliced apart; but she was not down. As droid's body was not in half and its insides were exposed, she suddenly began slicing more and more, jerking her arm back and forth with every slice in a very choppy manner as the body would slowly break into more and more pieces as she screamed away in low, almost animalistic way; "Die! Die! Die! Die!"

As the body before her started crumbling down into mechanical mess she would slice to the right in her final move, catching the falling head and penetrating it as it was falling down, getting it on her sword like a nice piece of meat all the while breathing heavily; she looked like a dragon, almost breathing smoke from under her nose from pure rage that was boiling her blood while clenching her teeth so hard that they would break at any point just not to break into another growl. Bringing her left arm up to wipe away some of the hair off her face, she would straight her back and stand tall once again while looking down at the mess that was once droid's body. Finally starting to calm down slowly, Ryu would look down before deciding that she might as well take this mess to Ume since it was a pretty good lead; but once she would bend over to get the arm, she would see it starting to wiggle around like crazy before suddenly launching! With some sort of boosters at it back, it would start flying away, clearly trying to get to some point as the scientist was trying to save the crystals she managed to get.

"Dammit! You can't! This is just chea-" But Ryu could not finish her sentence as something caught her attention before she could run for the crystals. She heard a beeping noise and, upon looking back down, noticing a glowing light and some unsettling sparks around the wreck of the body. It didn't take her long to understand what it was before she cursed some more under her breath, looking for a quick way out before this whole place would blow up sky high. She began running, deciding that a door was too far away and that she couldn't cut through a wall since she had a droid's head on her sword, a very valuable piece of lead Ume might want; so she decided to go with a plan C. 

As crimson aura begun building around her and her growl begun turning into a low scream of war, she tensed up and braced her whole body before running right into a wall! Slamming into it like a cruiser, she would break right through the metal while cursing as she felt the sharp ends running along her skin, scarring her a bit. Looking at Ume and fish boy, who were standing there in pure awe and confusion, she ran right at them before picking them both up by the waists as she then placed them over her shoulders; "Move dammit!" She screamed before pouncing from the ground, leaving a hole in a spot where she was before flying as far away as she could from the building. 

In a matter of seconds, the bits of droid's body would finally explode, causing all the machinery insides to get on the fun as well as they all started blowing up one by one before the whole building started falling and flying apart as the fire rage outside, brightening the place. With Ume and Sere still trying to puzzle together what was going on as they looked at both Ryu and the place, the Oni warrior set herself up and looked at the building before snickering under her breath with a light sneer; "She even used old school explosions. That bit-" And it was then when Ryu heard a siren of police force approaching, clearly reacting to a massive explosion during the night. Blinking a few times, she dropped her head down, mumbling some more curses under her breath in Oni's tongue; they were quite nasty.


	6. Chapter VI: In enemy territory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes things go well and you do things at your own paste, discovering various details you need for your mission while defeating enemies. And sometimes you get captured. Things happen in the cosmos, right?

Ryu grunted, jerking her sword from guard's arms before slowly walking onto the ship. This whole thing could've gone extremely bad if not for Sere's connections and Ume's speech skills. Initially, they were the only one left at the scene so cops simply took them in, planning to make them face the investigation and trial. But, getting a one on one meeting with the head of security, Ume managed to talk pursued her in letting them go; not without transferring quite a sum of credits from his personal account and giving her his contact information, of course. 

Once they would get back up to Tetryl Gekido, Sere would get them a cosy, and kinda small ship with which they would be able to fly off from the planet in search of that damn Elven terrorist. "My my, you are quite loud, aren't you?" 

Sitting down in one of the back seats, she shot quite a glare at Sere who tried to be too sassy for his own good, practically grilling the poor guy right there and then. "I suggest to not say anything, she is still angry." Ume intervened, throwing a bottle of soda in Ryu's direction before closing the door behind him. 

"Angry? What about? She got alive out of that explosion and managed to get from the cops. What to be angry about?"

"She didn't manage to fully defeat her. For Oni such as herself, it is annoying." He said with a chuckle, taking a seat at the front as he started the vehicle up uncomfortably before looking over at Sere as autopilot was turned on. "So, you said we can track that arm down?"

Nodding, young and flamboyant Siren would take a seat next to Ume, looking down at the screen of his datapad. "Yup. They are the Elven terrorist so they have a thing for using only 'authentic and old school Earth technology; therefore, it is pretty shit and is easy to be tracked." He said, going over all the information from any ship that left the territory of the planet in last few hours before finding the one with an unusually high reading of electricity. "There. Any planet leaving Tetryl Gekido is tracked, just in case. Tracker usually wears off in few hours, so no one would suspect anything. This should be enough for us to get them."

"Damn, they are serious about it, aren't they?" Ume sighed, looking at the datapad as well as he read that the ship was quite big and bulky, fitting a bill of a true military vehicle for transporting troops during emergencies. "Stupid for using such obvious things but hey, if left untouched they can get pretty dangerous."

With the ship set on its course, the three of them could finally relax a bit; or at least one of them could. While Sere was busy with tracking down the ship and making sure they would get the signal from the ship once they are close enough and Ume was busy checking on the news to make sure nothing happened to, well, anything Ryu was simply...sleeping. Laying on a bench that was meant for at three to four people, she could barely fit on it hugging her katana tightly as she was mumbling something under her nose with a pair of headphones on her ears, listening to some sort of music; it wasn't metal as one would suspect. It was almost peaceful, just drifting through space like that with nothing but void around them...until a ship would appear. 

Signals would immediately go crazy, starting up an alarm as a massive cruiser appeared right out of nowhere above them. Before they could really do anything cruiser would shoot out a magnetic ray, capturing them and pulling them in. As Sere and Ume were already trying to think about a way out, imagining that those were pirates at best, Ryu would barely start waking up from her nap due to loud alarm. 

There would be quite a lot of suspension before their ship would finally stop, indicating that they arrived at the hangar. Gulping down quietly, Ume looked over to his Oni friend to see how she was already pulling her sword out lazily. "Ry-yu dammit!" He exclaimed, jumping to her side as he was ready to place his hand on her hand to stop her, not like that would've worked. "You can't just jump out of here with your sword out!"

"I can't? I mean, clearly, those guys are not good so...Why not?"

He sighed, using his thumb and middle finger to rub the bridge of his nose as he leant back up. His hand would then move down, stroking his beard in a quite annoyed manner, almost pulling it off. "We are in the hangar, right?"

"Well...Most likely, yeah."

"That means that there are at least turrets outside. I don't doubt your skill, but going up against that would be at the very least stupid." He said before moving his own eyes to the door, glancing a gaze at it with his magenta eyes before looking back at Ryu. "Let's just...Try to get out first, okay?"

Strangely enough, Ryu seemed to actually listen to him quite willingly, pushing her katana back into it saya before looking at the door as well. "You gonna try to talk with them? You know that they will take our weapons away; probably will also shackle us."

"Worst case scenario they put is in a cage; and you know I can get us out even if that happens." He said, giving her a serious look before suddenly chuckling. "If things do get south, then we can blaze them to oblivion, yeah?"

Ryu chuckled herself, rubbing her tired eyes with her hand before giving him a nod. "Sure. But if they do anything to my katana, it's on you." Meanwhile, Sere was just shaking behind them, not understanding if Ryu had a personality disorder or if Ume had weird pacifying abilities. 

Once their door was opened, they would take their first steps outside only to find themselves lost in a slight awe; the ship wasn't bad. It wasn't dirty, breaking nor ugly, which were qualities of the standard pirate ship. Metallic walls, bulky canons with soldiers standing right at the exit, hands on the triggers of their rifles. Their uniform green, bulky as well. The whole place looked bulky, old and...authentic. "You can't be serious..." Ume mumbled, looking around as they stepped down. Green colour, old look of the ship and weapons quickly allowed him to know that it was an old Elven ship; and with their recent discovery of Elven Terrorist organization, he managed to quite quickly put two and two together. 

Things didn't get better when few soldiers offered them shackles for wrists and neck; another old Earth tradition of allowing captive to put those on themselves first. Looking back at Ryu to make sure she was calm, which she was, he slowly took them and gave them back to Sere and Ryu. Snapping them on, an electric link would appear among those shackles, tying them together and making sure that any rush movement would be punished with an electric shock of quite a few watts. Upon investigating them and taking away their only weapon, Ryu's katana, they would form around them before starting to quietly lead them somewhere. 

As they walked, Ume observed and started chewing on his bottom lip, tearing skin off his lip as blood gushed onto his tongue while he realized that this terrorist cell was indeed not joking; in fact, if they had an actual cruiser with that much people on, they might actually be biggest Elven Terrorist organization out there. And that is at best; if they had more, they could've passed for an entire colony. Maybe even civilization?

His thoughts were cut short once they finally made it to where they were walking; the main deck. Bunch of Elven officers sat at the computers, calculating some sort of data. There was a nice path leading forward to a little spot that was set higher up with the main console. There, in front of a massive window for viewing, stood commander of the whole thing with his back to them. Turning around, he made his grand appearance while Ryu felt like puking from all the fake fanciness; if they were really fancy, they could've afforded a better uniform. 

Turning around, the trio could finally see him in all his Elven...Glory? One might wonder if that could've been called that. He was dressed in some weird uniform that seemed like a mix between a suit and robe, being completely black and extremely strict with some pointy collar. His old, sleazy face along with some old Earthen military hat wasn't helping the case either. "And so we met!" His voice rang through the room, earning a sigh of annoyance from Ryu as the three stood in front of him. "I must say, it is formidable that you managed to track us this far. But this ends now."

"Aw, yes. Looking at this fleet, it would've been like fighting the army, no chances." Ume was quick to reply back, casting an impressed glance over the room and its soldiers. And even though Sere looked at him with worry, Ryu seemed completely unfazed by that. "I mean, we thought that it was just a few crazy people with some fancy scientist. But my, this is enough for the second coup."

His words seemed to reach commander's ears quite quickly, bringing a half-dead blush to his pale, saggy cheeks as he released a ringing laugh from within his chest. "Of course! One can only admire the strength of their opponent when they are cornered! But worry not my body, I had a special order from the head of our organization!" He exclaimed, extending his arm before clenching his fist. "You, while not an Elf, still are a human and quite capable one at it! So we decided to grand you a chance of a lifetime; chance to be on a winning side!"

Again with the old Earth customs of trying to win your opponents over; as if they were getting some weird pleasure from doing it. Like, if they managed to do it, it would prove just how graceful and amazing they are. Sure sure, this is why they never won a war with Oni; Oni don't take hostages, they start and end their business on the battlefield. "Oh? I must admit, my defeat is obvious but Empress Dratha is not an easy target. Would a cruiser be truly enough to take her down for good?" He asked curiously, managing to pull out unbelievable honesty out of his tone. His body still, his eyes looking curiously around the ship before landing on the commander once again. "Isn't she a, uh, Banshee?"

"That she is, my body, one of the darkest and most disgusting creatures ever! Their nature itself is wrong and perverted!" He seemed to have quite a strong opinion on that, as any Human or Elf of old times would, as he went on with his speech. "But this is why we have a brilliant plan; see, why do you think we needed those gems?"

"For firepower?"

"Of course! But we plan to get even more firepower! See, those gems are pure and strong, but there is energy much stronger", he would say before slapping himself on the chest, looking like he broke a rib or two; "Energy of a living soul!" He seemed to be proud, beaming with eagerness as if he was some sort of genius while Ryu slowly clenched her sharp teeth. "And what weapon could be better than the pure energy of living soul against such dark creature as Banshee, hm~?"

"But, gems don't exactly have living energy in them or anything like soul would have. Are there new gems you managed to-"

"Of course not! It's much simpler and therefore much smarter!" He exclaimed once again, his face stretching out to its limits in a quite wicked smile as he spread his arms out as if he was some sort of prophet. "We will use the unique destructive ability of those gems to gather energy from souls and compress them into a holy grenade!"

The realization which hit Ume not so suddenly, as he was expecting that but didn't want to believe that, caused a sharp breath to be drawn from his lips. Gathering himself up quickly, he would regain his composure before smiling like a child who just understood why two plus two is four. "That is simple...! But, that would take a lot of souls and massive attack on the city might be impractical..."

His voice, curious, trailed off at the end as he sank deeper into his thoughts, looking off to the side. "This is why we will attack very specific spot." He said, giving him a nod before pressing his hands together. "We found a perfect place located in a centre of Idria. It is always densely populated with innocent souls, so we limit the amount of corruption as well as any risk of accidentally killing Humans or Elves. And it is only a few blocks from Empress' palace too!"

"Oh...But still, bringing this marvellous device anywhere near Empress would be quite hard."

"It would be indeed! But we, of course, have it all planned out! A man of ours, an undercover agent, will make sure device will reach her safe and sound. And as he is not a dirty Banshee he will be safe from the explosion too~!"

As the man broke into a victory like a laugh, Ume bit only harder onto his bleeding lower lip before coughing softly to interrupt his laughing. 

Catching himself and coughing into his fist, he smiled once again before extending his hand toward Ume. "But of course, where are my manners; I can see you for a bright individual that you are and I would be more than happy to welcome you among our rank, Mister Matsukura~"

He would sigh, looking back at Ryu just for a moment before returning his gaze to the commander. Bringing his arms up, holding them together and near his neck, he would chuckle softly. "It does sound tempting, but I think I will stay away from baby killing for now." Before commander's confusion could've cleared up, electricity started forming between and around Ume's hands, dancing wildly with bizarre pink colour. "Oh, and thanks for using old electric restrains."

Then, with a clap of his hands, a jolt of electricity would run along electric lines that connected his handcuffs and collar, disrupting it at once before blowing off mechanical locks on them. Even before they could hit the floor, said jolt would quickly travel to Ryu and then Sere, doing the same thing with their restrains. "G-Get them!!" 

Before soldiers around them could do anything, Ryu grabbed the one closer to them before driving her knee right in their abdomen, knocking all winds out of them even though they were wearing armour, which broke by the sound of it, before grabbing her katana back. Ready to pull her sword out and start cutting fools, two massive turrets suddenly erupted from the platform on which the commander was standing, charging up respectful loads of energy to shoot at them. And even though Ryu was ready to cut them down, Ume quickly dashed against her, forcing both her and Sere down behind some sort of panel before blasts went off. 

"Dammit! I could've totally cut them down man!" She snapped at Ume, looking down at him as he looked back at the damage that the blasts created to the ship. 

"I would rather you not, we still need you alive." He grunted out, clearly not paying her too much attention as he looked around before suddenly pulling a small oxygen mask out; no, not one, but two! "I, gladly for you, have a plan already." He said, pushing one to Ryu while pulling one on.

"Oh? Care to elaborate?" She asked, in pretty pissed off tone. 

"They are waiting for us to pop out, both soldiers and turrets." He said, pointing out that all those guards didn't seem to follow them behind the cover nor more blasts came off after the initial ones. "You can cut one of them down, even two, but soldiers will still attack you from all angles."

"So what? Do you suggest to just sit or...run?" She said, pronouncing the last word with quite a disgusted tone.

"Won't work either. Gladly for you, their weapons old." He said with a chuckle, feeling the floor below them. "Their blasts are not made of pure energy because they lack proper crystals, so they use electric blasts of energy."

"That means it's just easier to cut them down, you idi-"

Quickly shutting her down with his hand, he sighed, looking at her. "No, it means that I got a plan." He would then look at Siren boy who was quite lost before lightly shaking him off from his confusion. "Sere, be a dear and run for the ship. Once you get it, fly in front of those windows, okay?" He said, referring to windows behind the commander before quickly adding; "And if you will think of running away, I mined the ship."

"You what...?! When? Where?!"

"I am quick with my hands." He simply brushed his questions off before sitting up, deciding not to go into details of his thieving youth. "When I pop out, run for the ship like hell, got that?" 

Having no other choice, he could only nod even if he didn't like everything that was going on before he looked back to Ryu. 

"I do hope that you won't mess that up."

"I won't. I already got everything down." Saying that Ume would get into position before simply...jumping up. Standing right in the open, all the guns and turrets would be on him the moment he would get out of the cover while Sere would start running, not without Ryu's kick to the ass. 

As soldiers were searching around for Ryu, turrets would go off once again, two massive balls of swirling electricity flying right into Ume before connecting! As the smoke covered him, the commander would be quick to look away, expecting a man to be as dead as they get before something would catch his attention.

In the corner of his eye, he could see bits of pink electricity, just from before, swirling out of the smoke the more it would clear. Then, adding to his confusion, he would see Ume, safe and sound! But then, a bright light and a loud, shrieking sound would reach his ears, causing his face to cringe.

Ume would grin, standing there with pink electricity swirling around his hands, dancing along his arms as it ran along his coat while his hair waved around. Just before the blasts would've hit him, he would use his own ability, conjuring his electricity around his hands. Then, in almost slapping motion, he would destroy the blasts before they could even reach him, sending his electricity through them and overpowering them since they were made of electricity that was less potent than his, making it into a cake walk. "You really don't know anything about your enemies before meeting them, eh?" He called out, quite sassy, before bringing his arms up and out in a mocking manner as he stood in a pose. "And you also ruined my coat, so I guess I got to ruin something of yours." He said, referring to the bits of his coat that were near his hands that were a bit blown off due to electricity; the question was, though, was it because of their blast or because of his. 

Still, as turrets were starting to recharge, soldiers would already point their guns at Ume, who would only laugh at their attempt. "Useless!" He would shout at them before bring his arms up, holding them together above his head. As electricity would start to get tenser bit by bit once again, he would then draw his hands apart and down, forming a triangle of pure electricity in front of him. As all the blasts were fired off, they could only hit the shield that he created while its master was safe behind it. "Ryu, put the mask on, now!" He said, putting his on as well. 

Once he would see that hers was on, he suddenly would reach one hand behind, causing the triangle he made to start breaking up once he moved one of the hands away from its edge. But, as he would move it away, he would reach into cables that were exposed due to earlier shot, grabbing them. "I already said, your attempts are useless!" He called out one last time before suddenly sending electricity through those wires. Unable to drain the cruiser of its energy, he decided to instead pump it with even more energy. 

Before anyone knew it, a loud explosion suddenly rang through the hallways of the cruiser, indicating the core was damaged as soon red lights with warning sounds came onto the screens. As the door behind them locked, the emergency gravity and oxygen generation turned on while the whole ship moved a bit inwards as it was blowing up from the inside. 

As the soldiers tried to collect their guns and the turrets were completely off, Ume grinned, extending his hand out before placing his other hand on his right arm. Ball of electricity appeared in the palm of his hand once again, swirling and buzzing about before starting to shrink more and more. Tightening the grip on his arm, he grinned before the ball would reach an extremely small yet unstable looking size. "Lesser Ambisagrus Canon!" He would shout for Ryu only to roll her eyes at him as the ball would give off a single buzz before exploding outwards. HIs grip tightened, his whole body tensed up as the electricity started to run all around and over him. Biting his lower lip, the pink blast of electricity shot out, blasting everything on its way before easily rushing through the windows of the cruiser's cockpit, safely blasting anyone outwards or straight up killing them in the process; with their armour and lack of aura, it was the second. 

After few more seconds, the electricity started slowly disappearing into the vacuum of space. As all the air got sucked out, Ume was practically ejected from the cruiser if not for Ryu which grabbed him by the arm, holding her spot by sinking her sword deep into the ship. Nodding, she looked at the hole that was left after the blast, noticing all the corpses, their bits and all the broken tech. 

Pulling her katana out as the place stabilized, Ume was about to try to connect to Sere through his device before finally seeing him pulling right in front of them. He quickly opened the door, looking pretty worried behind the window of the ship. As the two would get on, he would blast away from there at almost lightning speed. 

"Well, that was pretty hasty. What's wrong? If that is because of the mines, I kinda jo-"

"Did you not see? Or hear? Or, I mean, Goddess Itrix, I do want the favour of Empress Dratha, but this is too much." Sere would mumble, finally starting to calm down from all the shaking as he dropped his head against the control panel of the ship. Gladly for everyone, the ship was already on autopilot and his head was not hard enough to break it. Realizing that the two were quite confused, he coughed and quickly sat up, trying to regain his previous look of pure professionalism as he turned to them. "So um...You destroyed the cruiser."

Waiting out for a few seconds, he watched Ryu and Ume closely, allowing the information to sink in as they look at each other. "Yeah. I know." He would then reply as he looked back at Sere.

"You...excuse me?"

It was obvious that casualness of how Ume said it really shocked Sere, if not straight up annoyed him, as the detective simply chuckled and took a seat at one of the benches. "I pumped some intense electricity right into some old schooled ship. It all rushed to the cores of the ship, overloaded it and boom. What else you expected?"

"I just...I mean, you know-...Do you do this every day?"

Ryu would simply chuckle, sitting down as she started taking a closer look at her katana. "Not exactly. This was the first time but, you know, this wasn't anything special." 

Sere's head dropped once again as he rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling. "I mean, I can control water but my skill stops at some fancy water show-off tricks. I just didn't know that out the difference in power was so..."

"It's fine. Comparing to main forces of main Empires, I would be lucky to be at least as strong as Major." He said, casually once again, while crossing his legs and pulling out some datapad. "Power can be different based on a lot of various aspects; technology one might have, aura, their race, natural skills, training. Sometimes someone weak can kill someone strong because their power is simply their counter."

"Oh, are you referring to story of-"

"Hey, Ume", Ryu would suddenly interrupt, not paying too much attention to stripper boy to her right as she brought her head up; "You looked pretty morbid at the ship. Do you know where they plan to hit?"

Just like that, Ume's expression would drop as he sighed, his eyes narrowing down on the screen in front of him. "A lot of pure souls, no chance of corruption, no humans, located at Idria city and is near Empress' building." He would then pull out a picture of a big, fancy looking building from some newspaper article as Sere's and even Ryu's expressions tensed up.

"You got to be taking a piss..!" Ryu growled, slamming her katana's saya against the floor as she looked at the image.

"Nope, it matches the information. They plan to attack the newly built orphan house and use kids' energy for their bomb."


	7. Chapter VII: The calm before the storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally learning about the group's plans, Ume and Ryu moved to their destinations to finally finish off enemy's plans at once, not realizing that it would take a little bit more than just a run in the park to do so.

"I assume you already have a plan...right?" Ryu would finally break the silence, leaning back casually once again even though she was gripping her katana pretty tightly. 

"Well, there isn't much plan to think about. One stops them at the orphan house while the other warns the Empress." Ume replied back, already pulling out some charts and running some programs on the datapad before deciding to turn the course of the ship directly for Caipra. "Ryu, you are okay with randomly falling out of the ship, right?"

The Oni would chuckle in quite the sinister manner, giving him a slow nod before placing her katana back in its spot at her lower back. "I imagine that I will stop their attack on a bunch of kids, right?"

"Wrong", he said with a chuckle, tossing the datapad away before looking at the confused companion in front of him; "you will warn the Empress."

"Eh? I thought you were the one who was good with words and all. Plus I really want to stick it to that bitch for pulling a fast one on me last time!"

"This is exactly why I send you to Empress. There is a chance that they might make a hasty attack upon learning about their failed plan. So, I want to make sure that the best of us is near Empress just in case."

"...Ass licker." She replied back with a grunt, ultimately agreeing with his plan before getting up as she got ready for her stop even though her teeth were already clenching together from the anger of the missed opportunity for another battle. It was meant to be a damn adventure and she managed to barely kick ass only once. After a few moments, they would hover above the square that was leading up to the Empress' tower in the city, closest they could get without stopping on their path to the orphan house. Ryu, not really taking any precautions, stepped right out of the ship.

Coming down much like a boulder would, she crushed right against the ground, cracking it around her feet as she would squat down to lower the impact. As all the fancy people around her gasps in awe, she would dust herself off before rushing past everyone toward the tower. HUge looking Oni crashing down in the middle of a street with katana before rushing off, a normal thing, right?

"Hey? Is that the Oni about which we were getting the calls?" One of the guards asked, looking at the girl rushing toward the post while checking on all the worrying calls that were coming their way. The Empress' tower was located in the middle of the city with some separation between it and the mainland. Think of it as a fancy moat around a fancy, futuristic castle that was filled with various engine that both punished the intruders, provided fancy electric shows for citizens and also provided separated energy for the tower. There were also outposts that would have lines of gondola lifts that would carry anyone up and down. There was also a special landing area but it was, obviously, very restricted. 

"Looks like her. No doubt it is another crazed Oni. Think she is just bloodthirsty or?"

"Dunno." He would sigh and stand up, pulling out his taser gun before bringing his hand out. "Miss! Please, stop and stand down or we would be forced to-"

Before he could have any chance to finish, he would hear something swift near his ear before a cracking sound would appear behind him. Turning his head, his eyes would bulge out as he would see a katana, that was most likely thrown, sticking out from the post's wall. It was so fast he could barely react to it and was so close that it almost took his head clean off. But, the moment he would turn back around, Ryu would already be in front of him. 

She was towering over him like a crazed dragon from the most nightmarish fairy tails ever; her eyes burning with adrenaline as literal smoke was coming from her lips due to how heated her blood got. Moments later, a fist would come across guard's head, crushing his helmet into pieces right on his head before dropping the poor man. 

As his partner tried to react somehow, Ryu simply pulled her katana ot of the wall before jumping on the said post. From there, she would leap onto one of the lines that served as the line way for gondolas as she simply started running along it upwards. Thinking that she missed on the opportunity to get back at that hag for what she did, Ryu got angry and that anger caused her to run faster than the guard could decide between helping his ally or calling the reinforcement; he has chosen first though. 

It didn't really take Ryu to run all the way up the cables, getting on the other side where the other post stood, this one empty for some reason. Brushing this off as something not really important, she would only see this as her opportunity to get the message across faster as she rushed past the obstacles, heading inside the tower. 

Practically slamming through the front door, she would look around the place while a light growl escaped her lips. "You just had to, didn't you...?" She said to herself as she observed the place. The ceiling of the place was rather high and was made out of the glass-like material through which you could see higher up just to understand how high the whole thing was. And even though there were rooms upon rooms with stairs and elevators upon elevators, Ryu already knew that Empress could be only in one spot; the very damn top. 

And so she, an Oni inside one of the most prestige buildings in the entire universe, dashed past all the paintings and holograms, some of which were looking at her in a confused manner, to run up the stairs to the top of the whole thing as she thought that elevator would be too slow. On top of that, she would start skipping some of the steps on the stairs by jumping past ten or so in one hop, rushing up like a raging dragon inside such peaceful and elegant looking building. 

While that was happening, Ume already made his way to the orphanage house, realizing that he might've been just a tad late...or, like, pretty damn late. 

Upon arriving at the scene, he already saw how the attack as happening, mostly because they knew that this was their only chance to hit with Ume and Ryu knowing about their plans. As the area was secured and some police forces occupied the area, there was a massive tank standing right in front of the building with some soldiers around it dressed in the recognizable Elven terrorist attire. 

Seeing lights flicker inside the building, Ume already guessed that they were inside before a heavy sigh would leave his lips. "And here I was hoping to get this done quietly. Guess I will have to get hurt to get this done." Rolling his sleeves up and showing off his arms that were covered with quality tattoos, the young Human detective would look down at the tank before simply tipping over the edge, falling out of his vehicle. 

As he was falling down toward the tank, and before anyone could really react, he would bring his hand up before electricity would start to slowly flicker and dancer around his arm. Then, a ball of pure electricity would appear in the palm of his hand, beaming with its pink light. As flows of fourth would rush up between his fingers, looking like waves of water passing between rocks, they would then suddenly turn into some bizarre electric spikes. Reforming in a matter of seconds, Ume would inhale before thrusting his hand forward, sending those spikes flying down with a swift sound they pierced through the air. 

Crushing down onto the tank, they would easily pierce through it as the old Earthen steel would bend and break under those before their light would start to illuminate harder and harder. Before he would land himself, Ume would smirk a cocky smile, clenching his fist before those electric lances would simply explode! Electricity bursting out from inside of them as they acted like some bizarre electric-plasma bombs, soon causing the whole tank to go up in flames as it begun exploding on itself as well with Ume flying right into the cloud of ash and smoke that was building up because of the explosion. 

For a few moments, there was no more sounds or anything as the soldiers simply stood there and looked, as well as some police forces on the outside. It was really quiet to the point of being unsettling quiet, especially if you account for the fact that some crazy man just dropped from the sky and exploded a tank like it was nothing. 

But then, from the smoke and burning wreckage of the vehicle that once was, a figure appeared; walking from the cloud of smoke, the man sighed, looking around the area with his coat covered in ashes and pieces of the tank. Without giving his enemy too much time to react, he would suddenly cross his arms together while his eyes stared all the soldiers in front of him with an unusually piercing gaze. Then, throwing his arms out, he stood there in this compromising pose.

And just when the enemy thought about their opponent being a madman, balls of electricity slowly started forming around him. They were arching over him like some sort of rainbow, sizzling and shaking due to their unstable nature with electricity fuzzing all around them. Then, as they would shrink a bit, Ume would fold his fifth and fourth fingers before moving his arms to point his lazily made 'finger guns' at others. 

The moment he did it, those balls behind him would fly forward, rushing like some sort of doom missiles. Trying to save themselves, they would open fire as rays of lasers would start to rush toward Ume. But, as one of them made a connection with one of those balls, it would explode and expand greatly, filling the area with that shrieking sound of electricity bursting about. It would practically absorb any laser shot near it due to how potent it was, leaving Ume rather safe from any of the shots. 

A few of other balls would share the same fat, three or four of them would eventually reach his opponents before all exploding in the same manner upon impact. As electricity rushed through their bodies, destroying their weak aura shields and busting their poor made technology as well as flying their bodies, they wouldn't last even a minute before dropping on the ground once the balls would finally deflate. 

Standing there, being pretty happy about himself, Ume would hear a scream of pain coming from the inside of the orphan building. Grinding his teeth together ever so lightly, he would quickly run inside without explaining himself to police forces outside, deciding to stop that maniac of the doctor.


	8. Chapter VIII: 'Hero' arrives!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, you got to act like a hero in order to save people. Sometimes, you actually are a hero by all definitions of the word. And sometimes, you try really hard to act like a hero but kinda come off as a just arrogant show-off. Either way, as long as it works in the end, right?

It was...less than pleasant inside. Whole orphanage house, which was once quite well looking because it was built with care and skill, was now practically in ruin. There were signs of battle as spots from lasers were here and there, some dead bodies laying around with parts of their bodies either burnt up or straight up gone. 

For the moment, Ume felt rather faint. All the death that was around him, all the presence of lingering energies from people who were dead not that long ago really got to him...before he would feel livid. Like a storm, electricity would start to dance around his entire body as he rushed forward, eager to meet the doctor. 

She, on the other hand, didn't even knew that he was coming nor would she care if he was. Why? Well, she was living the dream, that's why. Sitting in her newly made mecha-suit with a complicated and old looking mechanism at her back, she leads a force of trained terrorists through the halls, chuckling to herself as she typed various commands into the mecha. 

People ran and tried to save children, hiding with them or trying to find a way out only to be blasted away by a searing light. "Now now!" Agnes would shout with her rusty voice, a grin from ear to ear resting on her face while she scanned the ear before noticing some heat signs behind the counter. "For the greater good and science, right?!" 

As some of the men behind her would clench their guns in anticipation of what was about to happen, her tank of a mecha would bring its massive gun-arm up before the mechanism on her back would start to work. Looking pretty much like a glorified SWAT robot from old Earth shows, its body was much bulkier than of her previous robot, resembling human much less and, instead, looking more like a suit. It wasn't smooth either, with clear separation between each section as it looked like it was a plated piece of armor while the head, or helmet, was an eerie one too as it was smooth and black with only some occasional red light flickering on it top of it or on its display, one could not really tell. 

Still, as the mechanism would start to roar, electricity would sizzle around the tip of the gun before a red beam of energy would shoot out, blasting away the cover of the people as their screams were soon muffled by silent serenity. As they would die, this hellish device would soon start to buzz once again, sucking all the energy their bodies release upon death like a vacuum, infamous inventions that caused Agnes to be kicked out of Kayaku's Scientific Association. 

Laughing under the sound of occasional screams and the laser burning through everything on its way, Agnes was a bit out of it as this made sure that she would not hear approaching opponent. And what about her opponent? 

Ume was already rushing through the floors like a bolk of lighting that he was. When occasional soldiers tried to stop him, they were greeted with him simply dashing through them as if they were nothing. Even though they tried to raise their guns and even shoot him, he would simply use one of his electricity techniques to defeat them with ease.

Taking a deep breath in, he would send his electricity through his body, feeling his muscles tensing up as the string around his head got tighter the more he would 'speed up' his brain. Dodging those shots as if it was just a morning stroll for him, Ume would focus large portions of electricity around his hands before punching the soldiers on his way.

Being very simply type of soldiers who had little to no special traits about them, as well as having pretty basic armour, his punches felt like mighty thunder strikes from Peria herself. Having no armour that was capable of absorbing this amount of energy, electricity would run through their bodies and fry them up much like one would fry up an old computer. 

Running through them one by one, Ume's breathing would slowly get heavier and heavier as he tried his best to use only five percent of his powers at best to make sure he had the strength for Agnes. As, even though he was good at wielding such a chaotic thing as electricity, he could not attune himself with it, making every attack as dangerous for him as for his opponent. 

Soon though, he would reach the last floor as a horrible picture opened up to his eyes. Agnes, using her suit, raised her massive gun and aimed it at some poor nurse who was using her body to try and shield few children that were shaking with fear. Then, the blast went off. 

At first, all that the child could see was just red light and maniacal laugh of a crazy doctor as he could swear that his life was over. But then, daring to open his eyes, they would open wider and wider with every second at would he would see. 

Jumping in at the very last second, Ume would stand between the laser and the group of people, hunkering over them while spreading his arms out to try and protect them. As the laser would burn through his coat and shirt, burning his beloved fur while searing his skin off his back, he would bite onto his own lip until warm blood would start to run down his jaw. Still, he knew that he could not let go because, if he would, Ryu would kill him. 

As the red laser started enveloping his body, his own pink electricity started dancing around his whole body before concentrating at the point where the laser would hit him. Then, running from that point to his arms and along with them, his electricity would guide the laser to avoid him and all the children, showing his great control of the element. 

Being so sure of her victory, Agnes almost choked on her laugh as all the soldiers around her gasped in disbelief once the laser would go off and Ume would be standing there; his clothes burned and his back scared as well, smoke coming off as the sweet smell of bacon filled the room. Still, moments after, he would slowly straighten himself with the sound of an old titan as it looked like any tiny movement would cause his back to collapse on itself and simply crush away as a pile of ash. 

Still, turning his grimace into a grin, he would give a wink at ogling child before turning around to face Agnes and her soldiers; electricity still dancing around him as Ume stood there, doing his best job to strike his best pose while that crazy, excited look was dancing in his pink eyes with his hair waving and flying freely in the air. 

"You call that a blast? Damn, I feel quite ashamed such crystals myself." He would mock her, grinning more as he could almost hear how Agnes would clench her fists inside her suit before more electricity started building up in his hands. Soon, two orbs would form in the palms of his hands once again, dancing in their pink grace before waves would start to build away from them, running along Ume's arms as he stood there, ready for attack: "I, Matsukura Ume, The Fuchsia Ion, will show you what a true blast is like!~"


	9. Chapter IX: Stubborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, a person can understand what is best at the moment and try to push their desires away for the greater good. Sometimes, that person is Ryu and she doesn't care about greater good. Which one we have in this story? Care to guess?

For a moment, there was confusion in the air as everyone kinda would stare at Ume standing there in his pose, looking at his opponent before Agnes would start to slowly laugh. "Oh goodness, and here I thought you were someone dangerous!"

Blinking a few times, Ume would simply title his head at this in the pure confusion that was obvious on his face while a kid that was behind him noticed something weird on his back; two vertical scars that were going along his back, perpendicular to one another. 

"I mean, look at yourself! You burnt yourself out with protecting those kids against that blast!" In Agnes mind, this battle was already set. Taking such great hit head-on without any sort of protection was too much for anyone of his rank. Surely, she would worry if that would be Colonel as they would have the chance of deflecting her blast while still being able to fight on. But him, a nobody detective? He should be happy that he can put on his bravado after taking such blast head-on. "I mean, props for being able to stand straight and pretend like you can attack kid but you can't bluff your way out of that one!" Her laugh, crooked and old like herself, would soon spread through her soldiers as they would start laughing soon too.

Then, Ume would start laughing as well! Well, more like chuckling than anything. "Ah, I never was good at bluffing, true." He told himself, relaxing his body before suddenly going off like the spring; in a blink of an eye, he would move his fingers inside the electric orbs that an in the palms of his hands before throwing his arms out. Following that, he would draw his fingers out before ten spikes would fly out of those orbs much like he did before with the tank. Flying at the enemies, they would reach Agnes and soldiers around her too fast for them to really react before he would clench his fist, detonating all of them at once in a massive, electric explosion of pink wonder. 

Ryu, breathing a tad heavy, would finally start to get really close to the very top of the tower, managing to cover most of the floors impressively fast. Swiping some sweat from her forehead before wiping her horn clean, she would look around the place before grunting to herself. "Why the hell would anyone need so many rooms? What for? They are all empty too!" Ignoring the fact that all ambassadors and workers were off for the day, the Oni would exclaim once she would reach the final floor, shaking her head. "Finally! Damn! Fuck!"

As she would curse under her breath her boots would smack against the floor heavily as she would across the room, walking toward the main hallway-room that had a final passage leading to the Empress' official chamber. Yet, before she could even go as far as walking halfway over to it, she would...feel something. It was like a rush of wing caused by strength and power of a person. Reacting swiftly, she would bounce off to the side before, out of nowhere, a swirling thing would be launched from the back, smacking into the spot where she was standing before nearly breaking the thick-glassed floor. 

Standing in front of all the glass that was flying up and down, Ryu titled her head to the side as she watched the knight rise up before her. The person was wearing a rather heavy looking armour that covered them practically whole, making one wonder how they could move so fast in it, while this person possessed an actual tail which was covered in a layer of armour plates as well. They were seemingly stacked one on top of another, allowing for flexibility and protection at the same time in her tail. As far as rest of the body went, it was average-ish; the person had thick synthetic clothes that were created for battle, a bit standard, with a bunch of armour pieces on top of her. Shoulder plates, boots. Areas around her knees and elbows were inflated, looking like some sort of bubbles in order to allow for easier movement. But looking at its square helmet with that spinning red crystal on the top and noticing those massive gauntlets with a bulging piece on her chest, Ryu was quick to realize that she was a paladin. They were rather slow and clumsy at times but had a massive destructive power. 

"Oh, great, you just might help me with what I have," Ryu said, finally realizing who that was because of those jade hair and the colour of her armour that was black with red accompanying it. She flat out ignored the fact that this person attacked her, thinking that her position of major will help her deliver the message quicker. And, being a far descendant of Dragons, aka Dragonkin, there was no way she would be with the terrorist organization. "Could you-"

"You dare mock me!" Before Ryu could finish her sentence, the women would stand straight and turn around, meeting Ryu's eyes with a pair of her jade-coloured ones. Staring her down with the determination of true protector on her face, she would pull her massive spear from the ground before slamming it next to her, looking other over before huffing to herself in her energetic and aggressive voice. Now, it was hundred percent clear that the templar was waiting for Ryu specifically and attacked her on purpose, not because of some random mistake. 

"Mock...?" Ryu would title her head off to the side, kinda just staring at the other as if she was spitting nonsense before blinking in a very slow manner. "You...don't think that I am an enemy, right?"

"Think? I know that you are one!" She exclaimed, jerking her head back a bit while trying to look as mighty as she could. "We get the report of an attack in the civil district and of the traitor approaching the Empress' tower before you, a mad Oni, attack an outpost and rush right into the tower!"

"But I am not a damn Elf!"

"No one said anything about Elves you fool! Do not try to play dumb!"

Realization would suddenly hit her; they were being played. Clearly, the person who seemingly warned this major about Ryu coming was working with the terrorist, deciding to seize this opportunity as their only chance of gaining some upper hand. Grunting louder and louder, Ryu would suddenly start stomping her foot on the floor before screaming out loudly. "Dammit! This is so stupid!"

Her opponent, on the other hand, wasn't as casual about the whole situation. Seeing that the other was still trying to mock her, she huffed and gripped the lance in her hand before charging forward. Managing to caught the Oni off guard just a bit, she would make a simple thrusting attack with her lance, aiming right for Ryu's chest for a lethal attack.

But, to her surprise, Ryu was no child when it came to fighting; managing to act surprisingly fast, her gaze focused on her opponent in a matter of seconds while her hand jerked to her katana even faster, pulling it out. Slicing it diagonally from the right side of her hip to the upper left part, going across her body, she managed to connect with the tip of the lance with the surface of her blade before using her opponent's simplistic movement to change the direction of the attack. As the lance would charge forward, it would thrust between Ryu's ear and shoulder, giving her the feel of air swirling around the spear from sheer acceleration it gained. "You got to be careful using such thing. You templars sacrifice speed for acceleration and strength." 

Her golden eyes would stare into other's eyes for just a moment before Ryu would dip under the lance, closing the distance between herself and her opponent before jerking her hand to hit the templar in front of her with the tip of her handler. As all the sudden force behind her punch was a bit too much, the templar found herself falling back before slamming against the floor with the grunt. "And heavy armour doesn't help either, dummy." Sighing, she would look at the templar moving around at her feet before deciding to rush off again, thinking that meeting Empress was much more important than continuing this fight. 

But then, out of nowhere, a vertical swirl of green fire emerged behind herself. Having no time to react this time, Ryu turned around barely in time to put her katana in front of herself, lessening the impact somehow. Feeling the fire burning against her dense skin, she hissed through her razor teeth before starting to slice and strike away, using her sword to simple cut the fire around her away. Once it would disappear, the templar who she knocked down was now standing, lance pointing at Ryu as a little bit of smoke was coming from the tip of it. Blinking a few times, she would suddenly grin before straightening her back, looking more...excited. 

"Templar, fiery nature and green fire? Kick me into warp whole and call me stupid but I finally realized who you are." Of course, how was it not obvious before? Being heavily interested in joining military ranks, Ryu would spend a lot of time reading and discovering things, as well as study various famous warriors. And, while her target, the famous Junko Yūketsu, took a lot of her time in terms of studying and researching, she did manage to pull some information on other interesting individuals. "Famous orphan who is becoming one of the best-growing warriors in the Empire. The dragon, the wielder of green fire, the Jade Fury; Osnah Kincaid." 

There was a pause as if Ryu was staring down her opponent with newly found interest and not a healthy looking interest. As both of them were quiet, suddenly, something red would start to swirl and dance around Oni's body. Soon, this redness would turn into a crimson aura that was consuming Ryu's body as a whole like one massive blood fire. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, this blob would explode, breaking the floor under her almost fully while the air itself got heavier around Ryu. Her fists clenched tighter as veins popped more on her body while her lips spread into an even larger grin. As her eyes stared at the women in front of her with mad desire, her pupils would appear smaller while a little bit of smoke would start to come from her mouth and nose as she would breathe. It seemed like, her aura looked hotter than the flame that was shot at her earlier. "Well, now I don't mind staying here and fighting." Seemingly forgetting about importance of her mission or misconception of the other, she slam her own fist against her own chest as the shock wave rushed through the air, going as far as even causing Osnah's hair to sway away from under her helmet; "As long as you stand, this Oni won't back away from the fight!"


	10. Chapter X: Let the battle begin.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, you want character development and plot. Sometimes, you want suspense and romance. Sometimes, you want characters to just chill and relax. And sometimes, you might want characters to just try to kill each other as violently as possible.

It was quiet, almost too quiet, as the two warriors would stare each other down. One, Osnah, with a glare and serious expression on her face while the other, Ryu, with an almost mad grin that sent her lips spreading wide from ear to ear, showing a row of razor-sharp teeth. One was there on a mission to save the Empress and protect the Empire while the other forgot all about her mission for sake of a good battle. 

But, even though her eyes were filled with burning desire of lust for a fight and her hands were clenching into fists in anticipation of all glorious passion, she was not an idiot. She could not be if she planned on defeating Junko. Her eyes, while wide open and mad, were scanning her opponent. She was taking notice of every little bit, of every little line of armour and ever little edge while comparing it all in her mind with all the information and logic she had. 

Osnah was a templar, fire one at that too, so any sort of head-on attack was simply impossible. Superbe defence and offence made sure that cutting her down would be almost impossible and Ryu would not have a freebie at just punching away at her armour. And, even though she lacked flexibility for sake of acceleration with those geared boots, her fire ability was making up for it too well. Even if Ryu would make it in time to dash behind her, that blasted fire would compensate for her lack of flexibility. 

Would that imply that Ryu could not do anything? That there was no way to break through her? Well, even if that was true, Ryu would simply crave her own way through that blasted templar; luckily for her, there was the way. A gap, to be precise. 

Finally making up her mind, she would blink once before gathering all the strength she had in her legs to dash her forward. Remarkable speed from standing still, she would close the distance between the two before starting to slash away at Osnah with her battle cry, screaming "Die!" over and over again in other's face. Her blade would bounce with every strike but, using her great strength, she would jerk the blade back, striking with twice the strength. Seemingly growing tired of it, Osnah would make a single slash with her lance from bottom right to upper left corner, fully bouncing Ryu's blade away. With her katana away, she clenched her left hand into a tight fist before gunning right for other's face. 

Seeing that attack from a mile away, Osnah quickly grabbed her by the wrist and stopped it, deciding to finish the battle quickly. As her enemy was stuck in that position, Osnah would twist the spear in her hand to aim it at Ryu before thrusting it down; and it was at this moment, Ryu knew that her plan had worked. Grinning even wider than before, if that was even possible, she suddenly brings her leg up like top class ballet dancer before stomping down on the incoming spear moments before it would connect with her.

Overpowering Osnah with easy, she slammed the lance down into the floor beneath her feet. Now, with one foot on the lance and her hand in Osnah hand, she brought her other arm over her left arm and placed her blade horizontally. As templar in front of her would realize her tactic, it would be too late as Ryu would drive the blade right through the space between Osnah's shoulder and the armour part that it was covering. Once there, she would twist the blade upwards before drawing it away from Osnah shoulder, blasting the piece away like one would rip clam apart. Reacting as quickly as she could, Osnah would try to summon some fire around Ryu's wrist to burn her hand away but it would not succeed. 

Having much thicker skin than usual, it would take much longer for Osnah to burn Ryu. Seeing her opportunity once again, she would then drive the end of her katana's hilt into Osnah skull, breaking the thick skin and rough scales of the Dragoness surprisingly easy before knocking the templar away. 

But her opponent was no idiot either. As she was knocked to the side, she used it to quickly accelerate herself, bouncing left and away from Ryu. Once her lance was free at once, she would slash the air with it as a wave of fire was sent at Ryu. The Oni would land back on the ground and dig under it like a lioness who was on the hunt, dashing back for the templar. Having much stabler ground than the other, she had the perfect opening for an attack before her eyes noticed bits of fire flying in the air.

In the very last moment, Ryu would drive her katana into the ground before smashing her own stomach into the hilt, stopping her at once before using her legs to bounce back. The moment she did it, a wall of pure green fire would ignite between her and her opponent. She almost managed to escape the attack fully but her hand was on the other side when wall appeared. Gritting her teeth, she felt how that wall consumed her wrist and then washed over the hand itself as it was pulled out before fully jumping away. 

Once back enough, she would cough away some blood from the hit she delivered to herself, feeling the pain radiation through her body before looking down at her hand. Nothing sever, for Oni, but there was a noticeable mark started on her wrist and going down to her hand and fingers. Her skin was clearly burned as it was redder than usual, almost glowing. Lightly pressing it against her hilt, she would hiss, feeling more pain coming through her body. "To ignite the air in a matter of seconds...no, even less. She is definitely scary." Ryu would mumble to herself before looking up where the fire was only to see her opponent gone. 

Catching herself flowing in the clouds, she would look back before seeing Osnah's towering figure behind her, her lance up and ready to strike down while fire wildly dancing around the edges of her lance as well as around her feet. Practically biting down on her tongue for letting her guard fall even for such a short period of time, Ryu would master all the strength she had after striking herself before to bounce back. 

Acting rather unorthodox yet practical none the less, Ryu would start to bounce back while Osnah took an offensive role. Chasing after her, she was slamming that lance into the ground, breaking it under her feet while pushing her further and further back. Then, out of nowhere, Ryu would feel her back right against the wall. "Searing Dive!" Yelling out, she would thrust her lance at Ryu, giving her no room to go away. 

Accumulating all the heat from the previous attacks she made, it all culminated in this simplistic yet deadly move that would release the ungodly amount of heat into and against Ryu upon penetrating her and the Oni knew damn well that she was in deep shit. Seeing no other option for defending herself, she would throw her katana, sliding it into the glass flour right near Osnah's foot. Then, she would feel the spear coming into contact with her.

Setting her shirt on fire almost immediately from the heat, she felt how the sharp tip started to dig through her skin and flesh, ripping away with ease while searing her wounds from how hot it was while all the remaining heat started to simply wash over her, as if there was a blazing hell right in front of her. Having pain rushing through her whole body, her blood started to heat up and boil from it as it dug deeper and deeper. Some area around the spot Osnah would hit started to get burnt, feeling extremely sensitive and painful as the heat radiated through her entire body. But then, the unexpected happened. 

"As if you cunt!" Yelling back in her face, Ryu would place her both hands on her opponent's lance, stopping it in its movement at once. As her hands got burned from all the heat on the metal of the lance, she would stop it before started to slowly pull it out and away from her. She didn't even grit her teeth at this point to deal with pain, instead of starting to roar and scream like a hurt beast while staring right at Osnah. Her pupils were small while her eyes looked like they were about to pop with all the veins pushing out through her skin. Growling louder and louder, she would finally slip the lance out of her body as the steam started to escape from her wound with that nasty-sweet smell of burnt flesh. "Fool! Damn fool!" She cursed angrily, her words being barely coherent at this point as she seemed to sound like a wounded but damn angry dragon. 

Using all her strength as her shirt started to fully burn away, she would throw the lance aside like it was an annoying piece of rock before digging under it. Having not enough mobility, Osnah would start to conjure fire in Ryu's way, forming a wave of green fire right against Ryu's path. But the Oni would slam right through it before she would finish it, suddenly grabbing her katana as she was now under Osnah's arm, staring up at her. It was in this moment when Ryu would pull her katana and slide it into the space between templar's chest piece and her back. Pulling on it, she would slice through all the needed locks on her armour before ripping the back piece off.

With her back exposed, she would dig behind her enemy before giving her a slice across her back. As its strength would go through Osnah, a gasp of pain and breath of air would get stuck in her through, causing her eyes to bulge out at the immense strength. 'How? She should be out after my attack!', she would think to herself. 

"Die! Die! Die! You fool!" Ryu would keep on growling, starting to slice at her back, ripping through her synthetic shirt and starting to slice away at her back and through her scales directly. Stopping her strikes for just a moment, Ryu would suddenly kick Osnah in her back with her foot, slamming the templar face first into the wall in front of her. As it cracked under the impact, Ryu would start to slash once again with double the furiously, slashing and slicing at broken scales as soon they would start to fly away with blood rushing against the glass floor. As Ryu 's aura started to build around her like a crimson cloud of pain and anger, it was transferring to her katana, making every slice stronger than before. 

Rather unexpectedly, her attack would resemble Osnah previous attack the more it went on before Ryu would raise her sword up before screaming. "Roaring Serpent!" With that, she would take a tight grip of her sword before thrusting it down across Osnah's back, releasing all the built up aura that was in the katana as well as all the heat from friction it gathered right into Osnah. It wad a very powerful aura blast that Osnah could probably take on back, with the fact that it was point black and right against her bleeding back, the dragon templar would grunt out in pain while coughing up blood as the blast exploded against her back, blasting more scales off her back and sending blood flying everywhere with bits of flesh while the wound pushed even deeper, almost breaking her enchanted spine apart as Ryu was breathing steam from her mouth, staring at Osnah with her body still as her eyes were still shaking.


	11. Chapter XI: Energized

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In face of danger, Ume finally tries to stop being peaceful as he tries to pull everything he had out. Witness this marvellous light show firsthand as you follow this battle along.

As the smoke filled the area, not allowing the soldiers to shoot at Ume nor letting Agnes take a clear shot at him as well, he would turn back to the children with few caretakers who stayed behind to help them. Staring them down, he would shout at them to run off somewhere, disregarding his searing and smoking hot back. With them out of the way, he would hear a gun charging up as the smoke slowly started to clear up. "Tsk, she is stubborn, I will give her that."

As the electricity would start to dance around him once more, the detective would charge forward. Making a twirl like a dancer of sorts, he would allow the laser blast to miss him by an inch before taking aim at the confused soldiers in front of him. As they were just laying their eyes on him with their hands itching to their guns to raise them up, it was already too late. 

Closing up, Ume would create a swirling mass of electricity in front of his fists, or more so around them, before punching the soldier in the abdomen. As the punches themselves had no real weight, mostly because Ume had pretty average strength, the electricity that he would send through the soldier definitely had more impact. Soon, the electricity would lightly sizzle around him before two shockwaves of electricity would mini explode from his back. As the soldier would bend over and collapse from the impact, his eyes would lay to other two.

As their guns were ready to shoot, Ume stood his ground before clapping his hands together. Rubbing them against each other, few strikes of electricity would zap his hands back and form before a small swirl would appear between his palms. Then, as the soldiers would pull their triggers and their energy blasts would fly at Ume, he would spear his arms out, stretching that mass of electricity in front of him. 

Stretching it out like that, he would create a screaming line of the shield in front of him as the blasts shot earlier would hit the wall before being absorbed simply because they were weaker. As the wall itself started to get madder and madder, radiating with more pinkiness than before, Ume would collapse it back into the ball between his palms before squeezing it down like a dough, spreading it around between his palms. Then, swiping his upper hand horizontally across, a bunch of electric needles would come out flying at the two soldiers in front of him.

Hitting the mark for hundred percent, Ume just had to rub it in their face by swirling around with his back to them as his arms were in that weird stand pose as if he was an actor in the theatre who was receiving an applause. Then, he would clench his fists as all of those tiny needles would start to explode in their intense glory, sending waves upon waves against and throw the soldiers. Dropping down, the air would cause Ume's pink hair to flow in the air, adding this much style to his grin as he stares down Agnes in front of him who was watching and studying his this entire time. "My my, so much strength even though you just been blasted? Remarkable." Agnes spoke in her old voice, sounding quite amused even though her forces now were mostly destroyed. "Yet, it does seem like you are pushing yourself really hard, eh~?"

Biting onto the inside of his lower lip, he would clench his fists while trying not to look down at his arms; he didn't need to though. He could feel how his skin was cracking under the pressure of the electricity the more he used it. Electricity was the wildest of five elements and, sadly or not, he was not born with the gift of immunity to it. So, the further he would push himself, the more he would eventually destroy himself. But it didn't really matter now, huh? "Damn, I am really between a hammer and an anvil, am I not?"

With a sigh, Ume would shake his shoulders a bit before titling the head at his opponent. There was a moment of silence before Agnes would shot another blast into his direction. Dodging to the side this time around, the two soldiers that were left around her would start to shower him with more blasts, giving him almost no room for movement. As the blood would spill from his mouth and run down his lower lip, he would dash actually ahead, feeling the laser blasts searing through his clothes and burning his skin. 

As more electricity would start to form around him, he would spread his fingers around before starting to dodge between Agnes and her soldiers, avoiding their attacks. "You might've gotten close, yet you won't have room for attack!" Quite full of herself, Agnes would laugh, shooting off another blast and nearly killing one of her mans while Ume was swirling around and between all three of them. 

His body was feeling more and tenser with every moment of this whole charade; a blast hitting his leg there before his own electricity causing another crack to run along his arm there which caused a warm blood to run down his skin. Was really everything working against him?

Then, quite suddenly, Ume would jump up and bounce from the ceiling to create some distance between him and his enemies. Landing away from them, his breathing was hard as sweat started to build on his large forehead while his hair covered his face from his bent over position as he tried to catch his breath. As Agnes would bring her gun up once again, she would aim it at him before feeling some...pressure on it. 

Blinking a few times, she looked down at the gun before noticing a thin and pink thread that was going across her, laying over her gun as it didn't let her move any further. Looking closer, she noticed how it actually looked quite unstable before noticing sizzles of electricity bouncing around it. "Room to attack? I had plenty of it~" Sassing her back with a tired grin, Ume would move his fingers around before pink threads of electricity would come into light.

They were nicely wrapping around his wrists, digging into his flesh bit too much for comfort before going to his fingers. Then there, from the tips of his fingers, they extended to his opponents; and now they could see. All the time he was dancing around them, he was planting them around as now they were all around them as if a thousand spiders decided to have one huge orgy all around them. 

Utterly stuck between them, Ume would pull on them slowly, tightening them around the group as they couldn't move while his eyes were fixed on Agnes. "Incompetent." With those last words, he would clench his fists once again as all the threads would snap at once. With that, they would start to extend in an electric hell of their true glory, surrounding the group. And, because of how much he played there, it felt like the group was in one massive ball of swirling electricity. It was a simple yet deadly trap attack that was practice by every element master called Elemental Trap. But he wasn't done.

"Elemental Trap, Act II!" He then would shout before raising his hands up and then snapping his thumbs against his middle fingers, raising his thumbs then up. With that snap, all the sizzling would die down and the trap would look like a perfectly smooth ball of the pink energy before collapsing in a massive and inverted explosion with smoke and metal soon flying out of it as Ume stood there, watching, with more blood running down his chin.


	12. Chapter XII: Shark Teeth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, a small mistake can cause devastating effects. Sometimes, that small mistake is being too cautious and trying to think way too much.

Still, there wasn't really a lot of time to celebrate as, from what it seemed, his problems were not gone just yet. As he was about to relax, thinking that Agnes was destroyed by such powerful explosion, another blast shot off. Because of how much smoke there was, her shot was a bit off, allowing Ume some room to dodge.

Still, he felt the laser blast managing to scratch his side, burning through his shields and coat even further while managing to burn his skin rather badly. Grunting to himself, he would jump away a good meter or two from where she shot so she couldn't hit him again while looking down at his side. It was messed up pretty nicely, having a nice chunk of flesh missing; at least he wasn't bleeding. "Why can't I be as thick as Ryu? Dammit." Grunting to himself, he would look up before seeing Agnes walking from the smoke of the explosion, her armour mostly intact aside from some scratches on its metallic body. 

"That was good. Damn good. Sadly for you, though, your friend ruined your attack!" Agnes would break into another laugh, rising her gun while keeping Ume in range of her gun. "Ryu smashed up my previous bot and I've seen what your blasts can do. So, obviously, I made this suit to be able to withstand smashing attacks."

"Would explain why you look so heavy and are so slow." He parried back with a chuckle, getting back up to his feet. "But that simply means that I got to cut you up instead, right?"

"As if you will have an opening to do that~" She hissed back, like a poisonous snake and not of the good type, before charging her gun once more. Taking a deep breath, Ume would start to run off to his left side once again, avoiding yet another blast even though he could feel how his legs were giving up on him. 

Clenching his fists, he looked at her before deciding that it was time for some direct attack; after all, if the roof would come crashing down, he would be the one dying. "Hit or miss, huh?" He spoke to himself before pulling out a battery with a needle. Stabbing himself right in the shoulder, he would release a massive charge of electricity into his body, essentially giving him a massive boost of energy that he needed to use up very fast. 

Biting onto his lower lip even harder, he would dash toward Agnes and past her before doing the same thing once again; before she knew, he was bouncing all over her, getting so fast that her visor had a hard time keeping up with him while accumulating energy from acceleration. Then, he would slam his feet into the ground as he stopped right in front of her, feeling several cracks running up the back of his legs. 

Still, he would thrust his hand that was covered in electricity, cutting through her gun before it would drop down, successfully disregarding it. "Fool! You should've no-!" Yet his speech was cut off with a sudden...blade. From the hole that was left from the cut off the gun, a sudden blade would pop right out, stabbing him right through his shoulder. 

As Agnes finally had her direct opening, she would twist the blade against his flesh, jerking the blade up as she would cut away at his muscles. Ripping away at his supraspinatus as his flesh was simply shredded away because of the 'ripping-tooth' edge of the blade. Reaching his bones, she would jerk even stronger, cutting away at his ligaments, she would rip his acromion bone from his clavicle bone as his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. 

Then, using her other arm, she would clench its metallic fist before punching Ume right into his face, sending him flying against the wall. As he was sent flying off from the blade, resulting in only more flesh resting on her blade after he was off, Agnes was rather satisfied with her plan working. The room was filled with blood and her laugh while Ume smashed against the wall and fell down among pieces of rock, jerking slightly as a silent scream was stuck in his throat with all the blood running down onto the floor.


	13. Chapter XIII: Dragon Awakens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What else is there to say but that the battle is finally on? Honestly, writing summary would make it a disservice so just go and read it. No need to spoil a good battle.

Ryu, finally managing to catch up with her breath, would slowly pull herself up from her crooked position, eyeing her opponent; Osnah was smashed against the wall and bleeding with massive wound against her back. Yet, Ryu didn't even think for the moment that the other was done this quickly. 

Squatting down a tad, she would bounce herself back a few times, creating some space between her and the other while eyeing her very closely. She was a god damn Oni and she would not be caught off guard by being too cocky. 

And, as if to confirm her thoughts, Osnah would finally peel off from the wall before, instead of falling on her back, stepping away from it as calmly as one could. "Ah...I see." She would mumble quietly as if to herself more than anything. "You are good. I was a fool to think that I can take you out without giving it at least half of my best effort."

"Half?! Who do you think I am, some fu-!"

Her angry speech was cut off with the remaining pieces of Osnah's armour dropping heavily down onto the glass floor, showcasing how heavy they were. Taking off her chest, shoulder and armour pieces Osnah was now standing in her black, synthetic shirt that was created specifically for battle. Shaking the helmet off as well, her green hair would finally have some room to sway away and around while her eyes were lazily fixated on Ryu, paying her not that much of an attention. "But still, now that I know how strong you can get, you are practically dead."

As some black light would glass over her shirt, making it shine in a weird light that made Ryu title her head, Osnah would suddenly rise her lance, holding it off to her side. Then, she would swipe a thumb across its surface, causing a light wave of fire to rush over the whole thing before it would...break in half. 

Like a shell of a peanut, it would snap in two halves like nothing before falling down to reveal another spear hidden inside it! That spear was smaller, looking like a spear instead of the lance. It was black, very mechanically looking, as Osnah held it with insane ease in her hand like it was a feather. Going along it, there were lines of green light that were vertically running from its tip all the way to the blade on four sides. And, at the top, it would culminate with a blade...or rather four of them.

They were lightly curved, coming together in a shape of a rocket and allowing the chance to cut from four different sides as the inside was, due to their curves, hollow with a spinning crystal inside of it. It looked much like a crystal on top of her helmet from before yet it was bigger, denser and would glow much brighter. "Eh? You give up your acceleration? What kind of templar are you then?"

Ryu tried to mock but that would simply open herself for a brief second; something that was clearly enough for Osnah. She would make a dashing move before closing the distance between the two almost immediately, managing to finally catch Ryu off guard. Quickly rising her sword, Ryu would barely manage to deflect the thrusting attack, sliding her blade along Osnah's blade before causing her to miss her face by mere inches. 

But the attack didn't end there; right in the next moment, Osnah would thrust her spear down, using it staff part to hit Ruy right in the side of her neck, knocking her slightly off her feet. As the Oni wobbled awkwardly to the right for a few moments, she would begin slicing against her.

Feeling rather backed against the corner, Ryu felt how she was a step or two behind as she was managing to barely deflect every single of those slices. Wanting some room to think and move, she would use the opening between two attacks to jump up and away. But, before she even knew it, she would jump directly into her trap. 

"Got you!" Shouting this out, a thick synthetic cord would jump out of the end of the spear's staff, wrapping itself around Osnah's wrist. Drawing her hand back, she would throw her spear right at Ryu before starting to move her hand around seemingly like crazy, causing the spear to fly around at accelerating speed. Slashing and dashing away, Ryu would find herself as an open target, watching the blade that was flying around her like an invisible yet annoying fly while leaving a light green trail after itself, probably because of the crystal. Yet...none of the slashes would connect to herself. "Eh? Losing your cool there~?!"

Trying to mock her once more, Osnah would pull her spear back, retrieving it back into her hand. Once it was back where it belongs, she would raise her left arm, holding her open palm in front of Ryu with the face of pure determination and concentration. "Elemental Trap: Fire!" Shouting it off like a command, she would clench her fist together before hundred of green threads would appear all around Ryu at once. 

Quickly realizing that she was on a losing end, Ryu would look back as her eyes would bulge out a bit, seeing how she was falling back down onto those damned threads. She would look back at Osnah with her serious and determined face of a winner and something about it...tipped her off. It was the fact that she thought that she won already, thought that she had Ryu in her bag. Her damned trap. That expression that was telling her, surely she won because she is a templar and Ryu is no one. Because she had training, she spent time in the army, she had cool armour and fancy fire skills while Ryu only had her self-made sword and basic aural skills. That look that said that it was obvious that she was winning because she was better; it annoyed her. Angered her. She felt like her spine was about to spring out of her back from the sheer anger that was overtaking her body, seemingly causing her whole body to shake while she barely could contain a scream in her mouth. That kind of anger that was making her blood boiling, her eyes popping out and her teeth nearly breaking against each other. 

This angered the Oni, simply put, a whole lot. "As fucking if!" Roaring back out, she would twist her upper body to the left, almost breaking her spine before thrusting her entire body to the right. Much like a feline, she would twirl herself right in the air, but not to get back on her front side. Instead, with how much force she applied to it, Ryu would cause her whole body to start spinning around like a ball in motion. Hitting one of those threads at least, she would feel and hear how all of them would go off, burning off and creating a green hell around her that soon grew into one massive box around her. 

Osnah watched how her enemy was trapped in that fiery hell, thinking that, even as Oni, her body was burning and cooking alive there as she thought that she finally defeated her enemy. The fire was known to be one of the most destructive elements. This trap? It wasn't just burning her body, it was generating such amounts of heat that rocks would start to break and crumble away while metals would start to melt into gooey messes. It was painful, violent, sadistic and damn effecting attack that, if done correctly, would destroy any opponent from either pain or severe heat. Ryu was surely done for. 

But she was not. With a scream that would rival dragons, when they were still around, the cube would suddenly start to shake before exploding into thousand bits and pieces as the air slashes would fly out of it!

Ryu, just in the last moment, would stick her sword out and, using her spinning moment, turned herself into a small yet sharp tornado, gathering enough air around her to make a difference. Spinning like crazy, she would literally start to cut through all the fire that was quickly growing around her and trying to burn her skin. And burn it did. But this pain would fuel her anger only further as her pupils grew smaller with every second. This pain was what pushed her, like the true Oni that she was, further to fight. This pain, that was caused by a fire that was burning her body more and more, destroying her clothes while making her skin that much sensitive by searing it away. The pain that was making her angry. Anger, which would make her more determined. Anger that was making her entire body feel like it would explode from a deep desire to run and smash and slash and destroy and hurt and kill. Maddening pain. 

Once her growing wind would start to overpower the flames, the cube would break apart as Ryu would spread her legs would, stopping herself from spinning before looking down at Osnah with crazed look on her face, eyes shaking from anger and her razor sharp teeth pressing so hard against each other it looked like she was about to break her own jaw. "I am not! Done! Yet!" Dropping down to the floor, the glass around her feet would break and crack to the point of actually shattering as another flame would grow around Ryu; the flame of her growing aura. 

Like a cloud of crimson blood, it would grow around her body, actually making the air itself smell heavier as the blood in her body started to boil once again. Her aura was menacing and it was threatening; being a true and pure representation of her inner self, it made a good job of showing who Ryu was. It was aggressive, it was huge, it was hot and it was screaming in agonizing anger. One would even imagine that it would burn if you would get too close.

Not waiting even a moment, Ryu would jump forward, launching at Osnah before slamming her sword right against the templar. 

As it would come crashing down from above, it would connect with Osnah's spear as then, from the impact and strength in it, the shockwave would wash over the whole room, throwing all the broken pieces of glass and armour away from the top. Her aura, that was charged into her blade, would fly away as well, rushing to the sides like an ocean's wave while Osnah could feel all the emotions that Ryu managed to put in that attack. She even thought that this attack drove her into the floor by the cracking sounds that came from the poor glass. 

But then, Ryu would draw Osnah's spear away with her sword and, instead of attempting to make another slam, she would headbutt the other with her horned forehead. 

Like a damn train, no, like a whole cruiser she would drive her entire forehead against Osnah, driving her broken horn against other's forehead and easily breaking all the scales and all the skin. Its rough texture and its broken, sharp edges would drive into dragonkin's forehead, breaking even more of her scales while ripping the skin away, almost penetrating her forehead. 

Finally giving into her nature, Osnah's face would change from the calm and collected look she had into an angry grimace of pure annoyance before she would look up at Ryu. "Do you ever shut up?!" Screaming right into her face, Osnah would drive her head back of all things before headbutting Ryu back as well. As more blood splashed down her face, she would open her mouth before sticking her long tongue out. A small ball of fire would appear on her tongue, growing quickly in size like a new forming sun before exploding right into Ryu's face. 

As she jerked back from the attack, Osnah would tighten the grip on her spear before throwing it ahead of herself once again, driving the blade right in Oni's abdomen. Its blades would tear through Ryu's skin, that was made easier to cut through due to fire, cutting through all the flesh and drawing a breath from Oni's lips. Impaling her at last, she would pull it back out, drawing Ryu close as a searing mass of heat was already building up in Osnah's left hand. "Crushing Star!" With that name shout once again in Ryu's face, she would clench her fist and cause all the heat to transform into fire that would start to wrap itself around her fist, thrusting it then against Ryu's face before a massive explosion of fire would come off from her fist, consuming Ryu's face and head. Sending her entire body flying away from Osnah with smoke and fire swirling around it, Ryu would fly through the air as if she was a crushing star before slamming down into the floor that would stop her fly.


	14. Chapter XIV: Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, improvising is better than thinking of a clear plan.

She would start to get up, slowly, looking like a drunken slob of sorts. As her body waved left and right, she would struggle to see clearly for a few moments. As the blurry image in front of her would become clearer, allowing her to see the broken glass floor, she would quickly place a hand on her head as the buzzing pain rushed through it as soon as she was conscious.

Arching her back as she got back up, Ryu was panting and trying to get some air into her lungs as the pain was washing over her entire body. She was sensitive from all the fire burning her skin, her face was throbbing from the punch earlier as she thought that her cheekbone was actually busted open. Some of her hair was burned because of that damned punch while warm blood was running down her stomach and right into her pants. "You fuck...My panties are probably all dirty now!" She growled, looking down at the wound.

It was off to the side of her belly button and, to her surprise, not too terribly deep. It still hurt like hell and caused all the blood to run down onto and into her pants but at least it didn't feel like any of her organs were hurt. "You know what I will do-"

"Don't move." Osnah would call out, managing to regain her composure...at least in her voice, since her face was still rather angry looking with those eyebrows narrowed, starring Ryu down. "I placed a mark on you. You lost."

Ryu was confused at first, looking at other while wondering why she would try to bluff her right now of all moments? But then it would hit her. Placing a finger over her cheekbone, she would feel how it was no wound there but instead, there was a burning mark. "Eh...That's a costly technique. Why go to such lengths?"

"You caused already enough damage to the Empress' tower and took enough of my time. I decided to finally end this."

"Me? You know that you did as much as I-!"

"Don't! Move!" Osnah would shout once again, placing her thumb on her middle finger as she was ready to snap them, setting off the mark. Ryu would bite down on her tongue, staring at Osnah before a sudden grin would spread across her lips. 

"Oh? You think a little explosion will stop me? It didn't before, moron~" She referred to Osnah's earlier move as her aura begun glowing around her once more. Tightening her grip on her katana once more, she would bend down a bit before attempting to rush forward once again. 

At this very moment, Osnah would snap her fingers as the explosion on Ryu's cheek went off; no, not an explosion. It was like a flare, burning up and away, which was actually much worse. As the fire consumed the left half of Ryu's face, it would not only burn her skin but would also incinerate any liquid from any of her openings; the main one being her eye. 

Gasping out as the breath stuck in her throat from the sudden realization, Ryu would trip lightly and stop in her tracks while rushing to her eye with her hand, feeling how enormous pain rushed through her head while a picture went completely green and then black on her left side. But Osnah was not done.

Extending her spear out, the cord that was connecting it to her wrist would harden enough to keep it suspended in air; then, she would use her entire hand to twist the spear, causing it to start spinning. As the fire would start to generate in her left hand, she would bring it over to her spear before, at the first connecting, the spinning motion of her spear would pick the fire up, spreading it around entire spear, covering it completely. 

The fire then would start to concentrate at the very tip, forming a little ball of fire that would then dispense its fire back at the spear. Placing a hand more firmly onto the staff part of the spear, Osnah would huff to herself before drawing her hand outward along the spear before, once at the blade part of it, drawing her hand then to the left, horizontally across her body. "Danshingu Fenikkusu!"

Shouting this name out, all the fire would rush at the tip of the spear before a massive tornado of green on would rush out, gunning right at Ryu. And, as Oni was still busy with her lost vision, she would notice the attack a moment too late. Only managing to scream something along lines of "Bitch" or "Bastard" out, the tornado would crush against Ryu before wrapping itself around her, rushing upwards as the silence would finally wash over the entire floor. 

Ume was really struggling to see or breath as he felt really...numb. He was feeling very numb and cold for quite some time. Soon though, his vision would start to clear up while a ball that was stuck in his throat would finally clear up, allowing a deep yet loud scream to escape from his lips. 

Sitting up very slowly, he would feel an extreme numbness and soreness that was in his left shoulder which, upon moving away from the initial area of the damage, would transform into throbbing and intense pain. It felt like someone was melting his god damn body at this point. 

His blood was gushing out in rather extreme amounts, staining his clothes while creating a small puddle of blood under him. But, all the pain and dizziness and nausea aside, there was something much worse; he would not move his left arm. Due to his shoulder being practically non-existent at this point, he could barely wobble his arm around, rendering it essentially useless in battle. "Dammit, you-"

"Watch you~!" Agnes would call out in mocking and excited tone before grabbing a nearby piece of rock and launch it right at Ume, clearly happy with herself and her sadistic nature. Barely able to react in time, Ume would only stick his hand out and then would generate a small splash of electricity, enough to break the rock apart but not remove it completely. He felt various pieces and bits of it hitting him once more, sending only more pain throbs over his body before another one, which hit him on the head, would knock him down onto the floor. 

Laying there, all messed up and bleeding and hurting and dizzy once again, he would stare up at the roof, feeling how Agnes' laugh was making him only that much sicker. Grunting, he would think that maybe he should rest a tiny bit, just give his eyes a moment of darkness to get back into things before he remembered...Ryu. 

Seeing him right now, she would probably scream at him, calling him a weak and stupid idiot for allowing Agnes to get this close this easily. She would probably tell him that he still sucks at fighting before knocking him down herself only to then fight Agnes. She was bold, true, but she never would allow anyone to keep her down even if she had nothing to stand on. 

"I was really stupid", a low and tired voice would rush through the broken room, being obviously very strained as Ume could barely speak a word; "to try and take it easy. Only ended up hurting myself more." But, before Anges would try to pull another of her annoying lines, Ume would suddenly seat up, grunting through the pain as wicked grin was resting on his lips. "But I can't let Ryu feel more superior because I couldn't deal with you."

"Oh? Plan to bluff me? You have only one arm and legs that barely can walk. What do you plan to do?"

"Well, simple; I plan to hurt myself." With those words, Ume would start to slowly rise to his legs before taking a slow and deep breath, gathering the last bits of strength he had. As electricity would start to dance around his arm once more, it would suddenly dash to his back before two explosions came off from his back, right below his shoulder blades in a vertical manner. Then, two masses of electricity would burst out and away, forming a shape of blurry wings that were busing from their intense energy as Ume stared Anges down, grinning.


	15. Chapter XV: Shiny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It looks like things are slowly coming to their end, so I hope that this boy did a good job of impressing you with his sparkling skills at creating sparkles and shiny things.

"Oh? Are you meaning to tell me you got some brilliant plan up your sleeve? The last move? A-"

"Nope." Ume would reply back casually, barely managing to stand on his shaking legs while a buzzing mess of searing electricity that was his wings were bursting constantly out of his back; "I will simply do what my dear friend once suggested I try doing."

"And what was it~?" Agnes said in a mocking tone, thinking that she might as well toy with the boy before putting him down. After all, he was bleeding rather heavily and his body was already giving up under the pressure of his element. There was nothing he could do in this state except going off like a huge suicide bomb.

"See, I tried to be cautious and plan everything out. It got me this far." He replied, looking around the room before a smirk would spread across his lips. "Maybe, instead, I just got to try to get mad and go all in, eh?" With that said he would take in a deep breath and close his eyes before his wings would calm down, actually taking some shape for a moment before exploding with twice the energy!

With that, he would launch himself forward, flying right at Agnes. But, just as she was ready to jerk her mech's arm up to eliminate him, he would surprisingly fly past her. Dashing right beside her, he would slam his feet into the ground, breaking it even further before pushing away in the opposite direction, shooting out like a spring back where he came from.

Confused at what he was trying to do, if he was trying to set his trap again or if he was trying to get her dizzy, she would watch Ume start to bounce back and forth faster and faster before he would be slamming right against walls, bouncing against them to fly himself all over the room. 

And oh boy, how much did it hurt; electricity was rushing through his entire body as, with his heavy breathing, it was rather hard to make it pass through his heart correctly so he wouldn't just die there and then. His legs, already crumbling under the energy of his power, were now withstanding a slam against a slam right into all types of walls and floors. Gods, he felt like they would break and fall off right there and then as every bounce would make him feel how more and more cracks would spread across his skin. 

But it wasn't the worse. The worse was that, as he was flying faster and faster, electricity was starting to accumulate all around him, turning him into one bouncing jolt of pink electricity that was rushing around the room like crazy. As electricity would be rushing both inside and outside of his body, he felt like he would crumble into dust right there and then as the pressure was...unimaginable. 

But, the more his body would hurt and the more his consciousness would slip away, he would only have one image in his mind; Ryu. How she always would stand up no matter what would fall down on her, sometimes even not figuratively. She would always fight on and, sometimes, it felt like it wasn't because she was an Oni but simply because it was in her blood. And then there was him.

Sure, he was a human so his resilience was nothing compared to Ryu's but still...it annoyed him. It annoyed him that two things he did for the entire journey were losing his crystals and then getting hurt trying to be all smart and fancy. 

Realizing that all he could is get hurt and lay there bleeding simply angered him. And soon this anger was fueling the last remnants of his mind. Was it how Ryu felt during some of her training? It felt quite addictive; he was angry, making him push on which caused him to hurt only more which in turn made him angrier.

But then, suddenly, it looked like Ume completely vanished from the room. And it wasn't like he flew away, no, it literally looked like he was gone. It was quiet, too quiet and eerie, as Agnes could only scan the area in search of him. "Eh? Tried to escape after all? I knew that a brat like you could not win! Do run away like-!"

But then Ume would reappear from the thin air right above Anges. Jerking her head up, her eyes opened as wide as they could without jumping out of their sockets as she stared at the young man. His eyes were simply gone, covered with buzzing mass of electricity as his wings were twice the size, sizzling so loudly that it would make one's ear bleed. All the electricity was dancing around him like thousand crazy imps while his lips were stretched to their limit, showing his teeth which were squeezing against each other in an attempt to hold back a scream of agony and pain and anger. His hair was waving around like tongues of flames while cracks covered his entire face, having even more electricity bursting out of them and developing his face. 

But the scariest thing, or better say disturbing, was that his electricity was not pastel pink anymore, no, it was like a pink blood. Searing, sizzling, crazy. Its colour got much darker and more aggressive, making Ume look like some sort of tormented demon who burst straight from depths of hell to drag you down. It was like he was now literally bleeding right into his electricity; and, when one would remember that his element was literally eating away at his body, that might've been it.

"Final Resort!", he would shot out in his broken voice, sounding like his throat would give up and explode if he only said more as the voice was on an edge of just screaming out loud with some growl mixed into it; "Ambisagrus Canon!" As his mad voice would rush through the room, Agnes would finally notice how his right arm was extended as a massive ball of swirling electricity was right in it, pointed at her. As he finished his last word, that ball would take a perfectly smooth shape for just a moment before exploding ahead. 

Electricity burst would shoot right through Agnes and then rush through walls and floors, shooting outside of the building and even slamming into the ground outside of the building. As Ume suspended himself in the air, screaming through the feeling of his hand disintegrating under the increasing pressure, Agnes would only feel how her armour would crumble away before not even a skeleton would be left of her. 

As suddenly as it started, the blast would then die off, slowly fading into the thing air as Agnes was still standing there...or a half of her. As her arms dropped down onto the floor, everything above her chest was simply gone as Ume would stare down his opponent's remains, seeing the smoke coming off from the burned flesh. Smiling for just a moment, all the electricity would suddenly explode silently into million little wisps. He felt very light and even pleasant for just a moment before his body would release a loud sound of hundreds of cracks breaking across his whole body, blood gushing out while his bones, muscles and synthetic augmentations broke down at last. He wondered if he couldn't feel his fingers or if they were simply blasted away before his body would finally fall down onto the ground, still and lifeless but with a cocky grin on his broken lips.


	16. Chapter XVI: Determination

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe, sometimes, it is better to accept defeat and rest. Sadly, or not, Ryu is not a type of person who likes to give up. Well, at least it gives us a lot of firework shows, right? Space firework shows, what can be better?

Osnah stood in front of the swirling tornado, trying her best to stand still like a mighty templar she was before breaking into a heavy cough. Spitting blood onto the glass floor, she would feel a cold shiver rushing through her body before she would clench her fists, attempting to hold herself together. "Goddammit, this is just pathetic." She would mumble to herself, squeezing her spear tightly while waiting for her vision to focus once again. "I really should not increase the heat like this next time." Even though she was good, the fire was no joke and was one of the most dangerous elements out there; going from basic attacks to such complicated techniques in a span of few seconds really stretched her to her limits as she felt half drained in an instance. 

"...You thought well, terrorist. Too well for the likes of you. I will send an ambulance for whatever will be left of you if you will still be alive." Saying that she would stand back up and turn around, deciding that it was a time to report to the Empress that the assassin was dealt with. 

"Bitch!" A loud roar would echo through the room once again, stopping Osnah in her steps as her body felt paralyzed just for a split second. Turning around with her eyes twitching from the surprised, she wondered for a moment if she started hallucinating from the abrupt drain of her energy before noticing something; noticing a slight thrust of air pushing from inside of her tornado. 

But then, right from out of nowhere, dozen slashes would burst out of her tornado before exploding the fire away as Ryu stood there, angry and mad. Her body looked like she was practically cooked alive, being as red as it could get with her clothes practically gone. Her chest was rising and dropping heavily as her mouth was open, clouds of heavy steam escaping from her throat. Her whole body was so tensed up that her muscles looked like they were made of steel with some of her hair burnt away and some bits still on fire. "I! Am! Not! Done!" Shouting this out in a barely understandable manner as her voice sounded more like a growl of a hurting beast at this point, her pupils and irises became just two tiny dots in the black abyss of her scleras, shaking from overwhelming craze that was drugging her body. 

Then, really out of nowhere, aura simply burst out of her seemingly lifeless body; it literally exploded, rising up like a massive flame of its own as it adopted a dark crimson colour of thick blood, enveloping her entire body with ease before breaking and cracking all the glass and pillars around her. Osnah could only stare in disbelief, not understanding where she was managing to find all that energy and all that drive.

"I, Fujima Ryu, plan to show entire galaxy what I am made of! And do you think that a rubble like you will stop me?!" Screaming out loud at this point, Ryu's eyes were dead set on her opponent with her hand squeezing her katana so tight it looked like her knuckles would pop right from under her skin. "You call yourself a dragon? A fucking dragon?!" Suddenly, she would raise her arm up, jerking it back with her entire arm looking like a charged up string; "You making me so fucking angry!!" With that, she would release, throwing her katana with unyielding might right at Osnah. 

As it cut through the air, the templar would shake her head before simply dodging it by moving from its path, hearing the katana slamming right into the glass right beside her feet. "Anger is not enough to win, stupid. You are clearly losing your grip." After all, she could not even aim properly, clearly that this Oni was gripping at her last pieces of anger as she was even dumb enough to give away her weapon like that.

"Am I?" Ryu would bark back, slowly starting to walk toward Osnah. Her body was hurting pretty damn good as every step would cause a thousand of tiny swords to stab her body, sending waves and waves through her. "Well, why don't you look down?"

Osnah was not sure what it was, but she gave in, giving just a glimpse at the floor before her eyes would open as wide as they could. Grabbing the moment by the horns, Ryu would scream loudly before slamming her foot right into the floor, breaking it under her mass before a humongous crack would start to rush toward Osnah who was standing in a massive circle that was barely keeping up after Ryu's throw. "You...!" Osnah could simply yelp in surprise before the crack that Ryu made would connect with the massive area on which Osnah was standing. 

In the very next second, the glass under her feet would break into billion shards as she, obviously, lost her ground, falling right onto her back. Ryu, grinning so wide that her lips started to actually rip and break, ran right at the other. "Got you, moron!!" Shouting, she would grab Osnah right by her ankle before pulling her. Using all the strength she had, her aura started to burst and fire up even more as her screams only fed it with more raw strength. 

She arched Osnah's body over her head before slamming her face fist right into the floor, breaking it as the dragon templar grunted, coughing blood right against it. Then, Ryu would use both her hand to take even tighter grip before jerking Osnah's body once again, arching it once again and then slamming her onto her back. Breaking into a warcry of the sort, she would start slamming Osnah around like that as if she was some sort of pillow before throwing her up into the air. 

Reaching out for her katana, she would pull it before all of her aura would rush into the blade, fusing with it and wrapping around it. Its dark frame would now give off a red vibration of pure animosity. "Die! Die! Die you moron!" Screaming at Osnah, Ryu would start to slash away at the templar who was kept suspended in the air due to an avalanche of strikes that Ryu was producing. With her last strike which was delivered from the ground up, she would throw her body up before dropping down to her knee. 

As Osnah's body was falling down, she tried to regain herself, feeling blood washing her entire body before looking down, but it was too late. Falling down, she would fall spine first right onto Ryu's blade, having it penetrate right through her back and push out from her stomach. Growling once again, Ryu would start getting up with her opponent's body hanging right on her blade before drawing the blade up. "Go! To! Hell!" Once above her head, Ryu would strike down, sending Osnah flying off from her blade with blood gushing all over Ryu's face and head. 

As she flies across the room, she felt a massive slash of aura flying right behind her which was sent point blank by Ryu. Finally reaching the wall, she would slam against it before that slash would hit against her, exploding upon impact like a meteor hitting the ground with crimson aura flying off into all sorts of directions, creating a red rain momentarily in the room. 

Ryu would stand there, her shoulders raising up and down from her body trying to regain its composure before she would stand back up, slamming a fist right into her half-bare chest. "This is what I am made of, bitch!"


	17. Chapter XVII: Empress of Today makes an appearance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And just like this, we are slowly coming to an end; only one chapter left! Don't let me keep you waiting and go ahead, someone really cool makes an appearance in this chapter~

She was standing there, breathing beyond heavily with blood and saliva dropping onto the ground; she thought that the blood wasn't her but she couldn't really tell anymore. Looking over at Osnah, she would notice the templar trying to get back up to her feet only to fall back down onto the floor. It looked like she was finally down for good. "Gods...Talk about fun Friday night." Ryu grunted, looking at her right arm that was shaking a bit before giving it a punch. "Still, I do need to find Empress and tell her about the damn attack."

But then, in the very next moment, Ryu would feel a...zap. She blinked a few times, feeling how her legs went numb before looking down and seeing a laser line penetrating through her stomach. It was really small but, most likely, it hit her right on the spine, rendering her legs useless. Grunting, she would fall face first onto glass floor, grunting while the mystery person would walk from behind, heading for Osnah. 

"I am glad I made it in time!" A voice, old and warm, called out as he rushed for templar. Looking over, Ryu would see a big man approaching Osnah, getting down on his knee to help her slowly up. He was really big and had a police uniform and... elf ears. "Worry not dear friend, I, Eriladar Qimaer, is here to help."

Ryu could not believe what she was seeing, the fact that this lovable goof of an officer just blasted her right from the back before she would notice how, while his one hand was holding onto Osnah's arm to help her up, his other hand was free; in fact, he already pointed two fingers out, aiming it right at templar's head. 

There were only so many things that Oni hated and lies, with betrayal, were among them. For the moment, it felt like there was no pain in her legs; or, better say, she didn't care about it. It was a known phenomenon among Oni. Their anger could reach such great points that, due to some miracle ways, they would be literally able to ignore physical restrictions of their bodies; even if that would lead to a lot of Oni dying because they couldn't tell how much they were hurting.

So she ignored all the pain and numbness in her legs before slamming her katana into the floor. She didn't have her legs but she still had those arms. Using the katana to launch herself forward, she would sink her claws into the floor to drag herself along the ground like some sort of nightmarish beast. When Eriladar finally turned around to notice Ryu, she already closed the distance between them. 

Seeing no other option, she would pounce before closing her mouth around his hand, sinking her razor-sharp teeth into his flesh. Screaming out, the man would try to jerk her away from his hand but she was locked in good. Growling, she felt all the blood rushing down her throat and into her belly; she could swear he even tasted like an asshole now. 

Finally feeling how her teeth connected through his flesh, she would jerk her head herself, breaking away from him and falling onto her ass with four of his fingers and the better part of his hand in her teeth. Landing onto the floor, Osnah would watch in awe as Eriladar glared at Ryu who was staring back up at him, spitting the remains of his hand onto the floor with an evil grin right across her lips. He was still alive, sure, but without his hand, he could no longer use his killer technique. 

Killer technique...it was an interesting thing. It wasn't an ability per say, more a little thing that people with especially low magical energies could use. And we are talking very; so low that person could not produce enough aura to protect themselves. Usually, that would enable them to be anything more than a pile of meat but, the ones who were determined enough to press on would develop this technique. People were still debating on how it worked but a lot of them linked it to the breaches of specific energies across the galaxy, mostly the 'anti-energies'. 

His technique was pretty common and basic but deadly never the less; using his second and third fingers on his left hand, Eriladar could shoot out a beam that would penetrate anything on its way; or so it looked like. It wasn't a beam and bleeding from Ryu's wound was a clear proof to that; it was air. He would concentrate air at a specific line and create a straight path between his fingers and that point, compressing and blasting away anything in its path. It wasn't enough to cause the even slightest amount of mass damage but was damn effective in killing. 

"You...So they don't lie about Oni's anger and determination, huh?" Eriladar would suddenly speak, rather calmly, in his low and cosy tone even though his voice was much viler at this point. Pulling one some sort of gun from his belt, he would shoot himself in the hand with some sort of liquid as his features would slowly soften. "I was really hoping that Osnah would finish you off, I really did; after all, I didn't want us to part on bad terms."

"I managed to bite your hand once. Next time I will gun for something more vital, dear friend." Ryu would reply back, sounding rather casual and playful as if she was talking to an old friend...but, taking one good look at her face and noticing the killer glare that she was shooting at Eriladar with his blood still resting on her lips, one could clearly tell that she had not such friendly intentions. 

Sighing to himself, he would pull out another gun, a real one, before pointing it right at Osnah who could only sit there, confused and lost, breathing still heavily as her eyes were running between two in the realization that she just battled someone who actually was trying to...help? "Come on now, Agnes most definitely killed Ume by now and you two are in no conditions to fight. Granted, it would be harder to get to the Empress and kill her without my killer technique, but oh well, life is not fair."

"I will show you fair, you cunt!" Ryu growled, starting to bring herself up on her arms along with her legs still laying lifelessly under her. 

Earning only a sigh from Eriladar, the Elf would lazily ready the gun to shoot at Osnah while keeping his eyes on Ryu. "I am really sorry that it came to this, but we must fight for the greater good of the galaxy. And I do not believe that Banshee as our Empress will help anyone."

"Oh? Then maybe you should've filed an official complain, Sir Qimaer?" A new voice rushed through the room as the Elf turned around in less than the second, almost falling down as he faces the entrance to the Empress' main room where she stood; Empress Kireina Dartha and her marshal, as well as guardian, Shaazi Nazari. The two stood there casually as if they were greeting displeased citizen. Empress was wearing a dress which was of a Western-style, you know, all puffy and fancy and just for some slow dance. It was black, nicely accompanying her dark blue skin and black hair that were fully out this time, waving in the air. Two oceans of the pure abyss that were her eyes stared right at Eriladar while her clawed hands were pressed against each other with her fingers intervened. 

Next to her stood her marshal, practically best fighter of the Empire, a Genie named Shaazi Nazari. She was dressed in maid outfit this time around, much to Empress' perverted tastes, with her cosmos-cyan skin exposed to everyone. She stood there, looking like she was so annoyed with everything right now that she was about to just turn around and walk away. Eriladar honestly looked shocked and scared for the moment, almost jerking his gun away from Osnah's head to shoot at Empress before quickly regaining his composure. Taking in a deep breath, he would smile once again before standing tall and proud, keeping his gun at Osnah's head; he knew that he had a hostage and he wasn't about to give it away. "Ah, Empress...I guess today is really not my day, hm?"

"I guess it is not." Her voice echoed through the room in addition to her natural echo in her voice as a slow sigh would escape her lips. "It wasn't even three years since the civil war in Kayaku Empire but you are already on the move?"

Was she implying that he was involved in it as well? It was one messy thing where a bunch of Elves and Humans decided to be extremely racist, wanting to overthrow Emperor to take control of Empire. They actually killed his marshal before being fully destroyed once Shaazi and Junko, marshals of Kasai and Misutikku Empires finally brought a swift end to them. "Well, what can I say? We are rather an active bunch, trying to fight for what is right."

"So I heard..." She spoke before looking down as if trailing deep into her own thoughts. But, unlike everyone expected, this was not followed up by anything but more silence. After a few moments, Shaazi would gently knee Empress' in her side before the other would quickly jerk her head back up, blinking a few times. 

"...Miss, would you like me to deal with him?" Shaazi would finally ask in her uncaring voice, shooting Empress that look which was speaking volumes about how stupid she currently looked. 

"Oh, no, it's fine! He is my subordinate who betrayed me and hurt my citizens. I feel the personal need of dealing with him."

"Ha! Hahaha!!" Big Elf would suddenly break into a loud laugh while giving a mocking glare to Empress. "Nice try! But I have a hostage right here; if you truly care about her so much, you heartless abomination, you would never make even a move!"

"True. But then again, you did turn your back to an Oni." Delivering those words, it looked like sweat formed immediately on his face as he would turn his head frantically back only to see...Ryu still sitting there. She was rather confused, not really moving as she just stared back at him with a title in her head. 

Upon looking back, he would realize that Dartha was already right in front of him; her arm was extended and her hand was right in front of his face, open. There was a dark aura surrounding her but, unlike Ryu's aura that was flowing up like a burning mass of blood and rage, her aura was much more...menacing. It was washing down over her and flowing over the floor like a thick smoke. Even before Eriladar could make even a sound, all air in front of his face would start getting sucked in at the centre of Empress' black palm; then, a small bubble would form there as all the air that was sucked in got compressed and suppressed to the unimaginable point. Soon though, her bubble would turn fully black before exploding with a massive blast that hit Eriladar right in the face. 

With a scream, man would stumble before, shooting away randomly before tripping and falling down onto his back. Once down, Ryu's eyes would open extra wide as she would take a clear look at his face, clearly shocked; seemingly all the skin was ripped and blasted away with his flesh exposed and blood gushing everywhere. Shivering from pure pain, he tried to roll and quickly got to his feet before feeling Empress' palm landing right on his back.

For the moment, he would stop in his tracks before giving off a grave scream of a man who knew he was about to die; honestly, one could hardly call a scream as it was more like a screech of pure panic. Then, the same thing would start to happen but this time he himself would start to be sucked into Empress' bubble. 

In a matter of few moments, his body would crumble and be sucked into the bubble with nasty sounds of flesh ripping and bones breaking. With everything that he was inside the bloody bubble, Dartha would take a look at it for just a few seconds before casually swiping her hand down across her body to her side. Once her palm was away, the bubble would pop and all the blood, with some chunky bits in it, would shoot out onto the floor and away from her. 

Watching all of this, Ryu didn't notice how her strength was actually leaving her at accelerated paste as her rage was replaced with curiosity and slight shock. Looking slowly up to the Empress, she would gulp down before her blood would fully cool off and her mind would finally slip away. As her vision got blurry and her body got weak, she would start to slowly fall over to her side. Before passing out, she would feel some cold hands saving her from hitting the floor.


	18. Chapter XVIII: Finale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And, just like that, we are done with this arc! For anyone who actually took their time to read this, thank you for it! I do hope that this was a good start for the whole thing and, eventually, I plan to come back with more chapters!

For the moment Ryu felt really...good, for the lack of better word. Too damn good. She felt relaxed and nice as if she just got a good sleep after staying up for the whole night. It was really pleasant until the moment she would open her eyes; upon doing so, she would feel the bright light burning her vision away once again as she would jerk up, trying to cover her eyes. 

Upon doing that though, she would feel a bunch of bandages sliding into her sensitive and hurt body, causing pain to ache through her entire body. As she was about to scream from all the sudden anger, a hand came down onto her head with a light slap, causing her to drop back onto the bed. "Ugh, you Oni never can wake up peacefully, can you?"

Blinking a few times and finally allowing her vision to adjust to the light, she would move her head to the right before noticing the Empress herself standing there with her marshal at her side. This time though, she was wearing a more Eastern styled dress which was more elegant and timid in its look. "I-uh...Your Highness?" Ryu spoke, stumbling on her words as she was confused about how she should've reacted. 

Staring her down, Dartha would remain quiet for a few brief moments before a slight chuckle would escape her lips; it was made creepy by the fact that her eyes were still locked on Ryu and her facial expression didn't really change. "Well, that will do. How are you feeling?"

"Like a poorly roasted piece of meat honestly...I take it everything is finished, huh?"

"You can say that. You are currently in the hospital. You've been here for last three days." Hearing that, Ryu would bite on her tongue, cursing under her breath for not waking up faster. Three days? Dammit, she was adult now and not a baby! "Speaking of which, I have a question. Why did you decide to help Matsukura with the case while not being part of the forces?"

Sighing deeply, Ryu knew that they would ask her one way or another; after all, with how much noise and damage she caused, there was no way that they would not. "I have a dream, you see. I never had fancy training and, even though, most of what I know is self-taught. And with only that, I wanted to battle and beat Yūketsu Junko to prove that you don't need fancy upbringing and expensive training to be good."

"Ah, I heard of that", Empress would interrupt her with a nod, "You, Oni, often like to find a worthy opponent and make it your goal to turn them into your rival."

"Yes."

"But you can't just stroll into Galactic Empire and fight anyone you want."

"Trust me, back in my home you can't either. You need to earn it."

"And the only way to earn it is through the ranks. SO why you never joined the forces?"

"...I am impatient." She would finally admit before looking up at Empress with a fiery determination in her eyes; something you wouldn't expect to see in the eyes of the person who was covered in bandages; "But I wouldn't let that stop me! I planned to win the battle tournament that is held every four years to skip through the lower ranks."

"I never saw you in the last one though."

It was like an arrow piercing Ryu through the chest; a cloud suddenly appeared over her head as it dropped down while the might Oni shuddered from the memories. "Yeah, I, uh...forgot to file proper papers."

Empress just stared at her for a good while before giving off a soft sight, nodding a bit more. "Yes, I see. You hoped that helping your friend would get you inside forces. Smart."

For a few moments, everyone stood there quietly as Ryu was honestly expecting the Empress to tell her that her little journey secured her ban from forces due to everything she did; but, what followed, was more surprising. "Then, I guess, my decision was correct." With that, the Empress would reach over to Shaazi and take something from her hands. Slowly offering it to Ryu, the Oni would lay her eyes upon a little, square tablet with her name, photo and information on it. 

Taking it carefully from Empress' cold hands, she would eye it for a few moments before looking up at the older women. "Is that...how inmate's documents look like?"

For the moment, everything was quiet once again before Dartha would break into yet another laugh; but, unlike previously, this time her lips actually curled into a soft smile as she tried to hide it with her hand. "Goodness, you are too adorable." Saying that she would shake her head before regaining her composure at once. "Ah~ No, this is an official document that every ranked member of the force division has."

"Are you saying that...Like, no...Really?!" Ryu would attempt to jump up from sudden realization, being stopped by both severe pain in her legs and another slap on the head from Empress. 

"Yes. I give you a title of major. In a few days, once fully rested, you will be assigned to a general that will teach and guide you. I do believe that you will do your best, right?"

For the moment, it looked like Dartha even gave Ryu a small wink as the Oni nodded frantically a few times, clinging to the square screen so much it almost broke. "Of course! I will be the best damn warrior you have!"

"Well, it settles then. I shall depart now as I have some...less interesting matters to attend to." Sighing to herself, she would slowly turn around to leave before Ryu would finally jump up into sitting position, coughing slightly in the process.

"Wa-ait!...I have one more question." She said, trying to catch her breath. "What about...Major Osnah?"

"Hm...Oh! The fire templar! Ah, yes, she is not major any longer, sadly...She is actually promoted to Colonel!" Empress exclaimed before Ryu would make any sombre assumptions. "After her, it is hew good word for you and her opened up a position that gave you a spot."

"She...recommended me?"

"Of course. You Oni and Dragonkin are very similar; by beating the life out of her and then saving her from that traitor, you actually earned her trust. Fascinating."

"Where...is she now?" 

"At the Capital Fire Temple of Galactic Empire. She is taking some time to rethink her ways and tactics."

With those words, Ryu would finally drop back into the bed while Empress and her guard would finally leave. Having some time to herself and her own thoughts, she would slowly start to inspect her own wounds, wondering how badly she was hurt. 

She had a lot of bandages all over her body, mostly he abdomen with her arms, legs and neck; and since they all been buzzing with pain every time she moved, she guessed that her skin was burnt pretty well. But what interested her the most was a patch over her left eye; until now, she simply thought that the black area in her area of vision was due to sudden light, but no, her left eye was currently covered. Did it mean that she was blind in one eye now? Somehow, she was actually excited to get the patch off as soon as possible; after all, Oni is not Oni without battle scars. 

But then she started to think about something else; or someone. Ume. She had no doubt that he managed to defeat that old hag but, still, she was wondering where he was. "Idiot must've been here when I woke up. Ugh, probably is resting at home again, slacking off. Wait until I tell him the new though." She said with a sinister chuckle before a shuffling sound came from a nearby bed that was shielded with the curtain. 

Looking over to it, Ryu would blink a few times as it seemed to calm down before suddenly all the curtains would slide open, revealing none other but Ume on the other bed! "Aw, I am sorry but I think surprise is ruined~"

Ryu blinked a few times and was about to launch something at him for staying there and listening to her talk to herself like a creep before noticing all the bandages on his body as well. There were a lot of them resting around his neck, body, face and legs. There were marks of a laser fixing up his face here and there with few scars on his lips. His right arm currently had a bunch of steel looking circle dots all over it, indicating that those were probably new augmentations that were meant to help his body deal with his electricity while also providing support to the arm as a whole. But the most surprising were his fingers and shoulder; his fifth and fourth fingers on his right hand and his left shoulder were simply gone, now fully replaced by metallic looking synthetic body parts. 

Blinking a few times as if to understand what she was seeing, Ryu would only smile in a soft manner before giving off a light chuckle. "Look at you, finally got beaten in battle? Does it mean you finally stopped cowering behind tactics and decided to fight for real?"

"You can say that!" He replied back with a laugh which was, rather suddenly, cut off with a rather wheezing cough. Shaking his head, he would grunt and look back at Ryu before both would break into a light laugh over how beaten up they were. 

"So, I take it you got something out of this whole thing too?"

"Yup!"

"Mind sharing it, jerk~?"

"Ah, it's nothing big, really." He said before slowly pulling out his own table and handing it over to ruin. "I simply got promoted to Empress' Private Detective~"

Ryu's smile would drop at once as she would stare intensely at the table before bringing her eye up to Ume in disbelief. You what?!" Was he, once again, higher in rank than her? "


End file.
